The Weird Science Behind Living Solar Panels
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- The Weird Science Behind Living Solar Panels. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code UNDECIDED at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: incogni.com/und... Algae. It’s gross green goo that collects in still water…and can possibly make our future greener, too. Researchers are finding weird and unique ways to turn living algae into solar panels and hydrogen farms. So how exactly can algae do all this? And will they end up on our plate of choices for renewables anytime soon? Let’s take a look at the weird science behind living solar cells.
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@@UndecidedMF Why not modify the algae to produce alcohol?
A Nutley NJ company uses cellular agriculture to grow animal leather from cell cultures. They make leather from yeast.
Alcohol is built from sugar(s), getting a plant to make sugars has to be reasonably easy.
I heard about Algal biofuels awhile ago. This seems easier to handle than even hydrogen. More potential for drop in fuel. But it does not scale. The other possibility is for food, e.g., protein production (esp. in a warming world).
Poor quality spammy adverts for unneeded products and services. Makes for low quality content.
@@Jan12700 You mean paying a company to take your private information from you and put it in their database isn't a good idea? SHOCKED! ;)
Years ago, Arizona farmers were doing algae. There are a bunch of huge dairy and beef farms. So, feed the algae the ,,,crap..then harvest the algae for feed. Great circle
They still do it in Southern California. Lots of research going on there
My plan is to hide while the algae revolution fights the robot revolution, then welcome the winner as our new overlords.
Lol
Watch out for the mycelial mat counter-revolution.
Will they be better than the Capitalist Overlords...? Because I can't see how they'd be worse...('Matrix' not withstanding...)
Plot Twist : we discover we're far more dangerous than either
@@JohnnyWednesday Oh we are. Unlike the algae or the robots however, we could likely never cooperate with our own kind so completely as they would. We'd end up fighting ourselves while also fighting them, so they'd sit back and wait to see who the winner is, then present themselves as our new overlords.
As an Asian guy, Algae being scummy seems a weird concept, it to me is like always been associated with Agaragar, a jello alternative common in asia and spirulina a superfood, and seaweed. Algae growing on roof giving electricity, with overgrown stuff being then removed, on a tap for a soup or jelly seems like a win win to me.
I am also Asian, but my views are different. Algae in food is pretty common, but if I saw a lake covered to the brim with a green sludge, I wouldn't dare step into it. I also never saw algae washing ashore on local beaches, so I really only ever saw them in their habitat in unused pools and fishing ponds.
no such thing as a superfood, all nutritionists recommend a balanced diet with good reason
@@kiyoponnn yeah, its not superfood, its just a cheap quick source of protein especially for those who are lactose intollerant.
@@kiyoponnn No one is pushing to replace all your food with spirulina. Superfood is basically just a marketing term for “nutrient/antioxidant rich food that you can ADD to your diet”
Do the things!
Can't wait to charge my mushroom laptop on my algae solar panels.
😂
I can't wait to hack the mushroom labtop to have it print human viable Cordyceps
What kind of math do fish like? Algae-bra
@@esra_erimez Excellent 🤣
Can you hear me groaning from Illinois?
Didn't know they wore underwear
@@drillerdev4624x Rays?
🤣😂😅🤣😂
There are some living organisms that are very effective at separating charges. I'm thinking of the electric eels, that can (intermittently) deliver high voltages (600V) with significant current (1A). What a breakthrough if this process could be developed in some organism that obtains its energy from sunlight!
Excellent video, as always. Something that might be helpful to incorporate into your videos would be assigning a Technology Readiness Level score to whatever the topic is for each one. This is something that NASA does for assessing how far along a particular new technology is, and how close it is to being able to be fielded. Something like that would really be helpful for viewers to understand if the particular topic of a video is still something that's theoretical, been demonstrated in the lab, or is being scaled and ready for mass market deployment.
Love this suggestion. We'll start working that in (might take a few videos because the next couple are already filmed).
@@UndecidedMF Cool! Thanks for considering this, I'm glad I was able to be helpful.
Thanks for all of the videos that you put out, your content is easily among the best technology channels on TH-cam.
This kinda reminds me of aquaponics, where you have a symbiotic relationship between the fish and the farming that can be done based on their poop and the feeding of the fish by the left over food we produce, which feeds the black soldier fly larva. This looks like super early stages, so let's see where it is in 10 years.
If you combine the cells with high lipid algae you may be able to make the photovoltic charge and filter off some algae for biodiesel using the same device. The challenge is keeping the bioreactor chemistry going without harming the photovoltic cell efficiency. This is probably not something the homeowner or small business would want to deal with, but an energy generation business that can power via solar cells during the day and via a biodiesel generator / turbine at night might be quite happy.
I was thinking the same.
Schools would be a good place to fit them in because the county could easily take care of the maintenance roles if they’ll save enough money on their utility bills
It would cool down photo cell too
Now if someone could come up with an algae-bacteria combination that produced hydrogen while eating plastic, that would be a win-win-win-win.
It would be multipurpose in so many ways
And then it eats all the plastic we want and not just waste plastic…
@@daleatkin8927the use case for the plastic we need will be far away from algae culturing environments, however as you can imagine all the waste plastic always ends up in favorable algae environments; it works out
@@daleatkin8927yeah honestly no one seems to talk about that.
@@nerdy1701 They do actually. Do you think that would not occur to a bio-engineer designing a bacteria to eat plastic?
2:35 Isn't Tin supposed to be Sn? Ti is Titanium
The TiO2 is the titanium dioxide coat, the tin is the layer below, referred to as the FTO coated glass substrate
Isn't TiO2 a poisonous substance for living things ? 😮
It's in sunscreen. Apparently, TiO2 is only dangerous if inhaled in powdered form.
No, it's pretty save. Comparable to sand. Don't get too much dust in your lungs and you'll be fine. It's on your walls, probably in your sunscreen, ...
@@abhiabzy As with many things it is dangerous in high doses to living things, but in small doses or stable enough to not degrade it is fine.
Like alumina (Al₂O₃) coats pure aluminium surfaces titania (TiO₂) does the same for titanium metal used in medical implants for bones and teeth.
Keeping with the Pokemon theme. We need breeders to make the best algee.
Shiny high EV algae.
crispr
Thank you for the commentary.
Yes we should explore this even if all we find are deadends.
Knowing what is in each direction is important.
Matt can you upload a behind the scenes video of you rehearsing really long difficult words? 😂
Algees are criminally underrated
@@mr.normalguy69 Why?
Entertainment playlist?
Ngl the videos you watch are like mines, very entertaining and sciency
The algae with bacteria setup is AMAZING. We need more startups following this route 🔥🔥
Matt, love your channel. Have you ever thought about giving a "state of renewables" yearly assessment? Maybe a video once or twice a year ranking progress towards practicality. A quick retrospective of all promising tech you covered in a year etc.
I like this idea, because I want to get updates about all the stuff he taught me this year. Which stuff worked, which stuff improved, which ideas flopped for now?
@@brianschwarm8267 exactly.
CRISPR + GMO = Super ALGAE!
That’s what I’m gonna work on 🙂
A guy named Paul Woods spent his life developing algae. He founded a company named Algenol, which was based in Fort Myers. His algae continuously produced ethanol from ocean water and waste CO2. The process also created 2 gallons of fresh water for every gallon of fuel alcohol. Unfortunately, he accepted funding from an oil company, so as soon as he put up his first fueling station for his pilot plant, the oil company had enough shares to shut him down.
I looked it up and it says they still exist but they haven’t managed to make anything useful
Yeah I don't believe any of that. There's millions of dollars and an all-expense paid trip to Stockholm for anyone solving problems like this. And if it were that easy, thousands of other very smart people who aren't in Fort Myers would have discovered it. There are no big secret cabals running around the world squashing scientific progress.
yeah.. bacause they prefer to spend billions to extract fossil fuels, than to spend a small fraction of that cost to earn the same amount of money.. sarcasm..
The hydrogen algae idea has legs in my opinion. We started burning oil because it sometimes came up when we would dig for water. In other words it's a waste product, or it started that way.
I like how easy this would be to do. Growing algae can be done with plastic tubes and pots and pans. Add in the bacteria into something like a recipe, record the data into diagrams and charts, and it seems like a mix of magic and technology. I worry though that people won't understand my intentions.
Bro i met the professor how doing these research on it. I met him on 2019 at the renewable energy submit but he speak about research on inorganic solar cell after his lecture i asked him anyother way to make solar cell using organic substances he said "we are currently working on alage and green related single cell organisms".
They made it.
Rumors circulating about an algae named Morpheus looking for someone...
I'm very interested in algae and kelp for bioproducts and biofuels. I really like how this setup creates electricity with common algae, though I highly doubt that it will ever reach the efficiency of solar panels or even come that close. One thing I want to do is to create bioproducts with common algae by using all of the cell parts, rather than just the lipids.
Thanks for the video. Your biggest fan: (picture of a windmill)
Isn't a windmill the exact opposite of a fan?
Fans: Use electricity to generate wind
Windmills: Use wind to generate electricity
@@LoopyChew He wanted to say "I'm big fan" and by that he said windmill.
Youre absolutely right. But that wasnt that context :P @@LoopyChew
Thank You Everybody for All that you are doing for our Planet Earth.... Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste
🙏🏻 😊 ✌ ☮ ❤ 🕊
I believe a hopelessly out-of-date episode of the "Modern Marvels" TV show featured carbon capture using algae. The experiment ended with the parties pointing fingers at each other, perhaps one being the perennial monopoly utility villain, Arizona Public Service. I think the guy growing the algae moved on to a different business model harvesting the omega-3 (DHA) for supplements.
Watched the whole video, did not hear one mention of rare metals. When the engineers take over, will these algae farms be cheap to mass produce? That could be a huge bonus
Thanks Matt, amazing!
Algae grows at an incredible rate. How is dead and excess growth algae removed from a system in a way that isn't cumbersome?
As a plant tissue culture scientist who's worked with plant cells in liquid culture to prep them for bioreactors, I could envision a system where the algea are slowly removed and new algea feed into the system along with any nutrient feed necessary. For energy efficient cooling, I'd consider a geothermal heat pump approach to help stabilize the temperature and (hopefully) prevent it from moving past min/max temps.
I'm not a scientist but I was thinking along the same lines. Having a system that refreshes the algae while producing energy means that you could potentially have a solar panel system that exceeds the lifespan of traditional solar panels depending on the anode and cathode material. Waste algae can then be processed into biomass products such as fuel and fertilizer to run a generator at night and feed gardens. I would make the anode and cathodes replaceable. This tech could be extremely useful as a greenhouse technology.
@@daniellapain1576 Correct, it would be similar to a continuous feed bioreactor and there are several ways to make it much more sustainable than conventional solar panels. The typical problem with bioreactor systems is contamination, so they'd need to solve for efficiency, synergy, sustainability, and sterility.
20 year old tech. I remember reading this paper. Would be neat to see it ever go anywhere.
Y'know the most romantic thing I always find about science?
The sheer amount of world changing revelations that were completely on accident.
Like, imagine the world if Fleming hadn't accidentally left a petri dish alone during the holiday?
Every time I hear about an "accident" in science I always think to myself "Man, I hope this is the next one."
It seems like it would be worth testing a larger-scale circulatory system for the algae. A system set up with a working environment and, a resting environment, so that the stressing is only for an optimal amount of time, where the algae that has been producing for so long is swapped out with fresh, or freshly rested algae while the stuff that has been working for a certain number of days is allowed to rest and recuperate in a cooling pond, and maybe even reproduce. Like a spa day for algae. And then see how long the lifespan of the algae can be stretched collectively. It would be more like a natural organic system of operations for an organic-based substrate.
After all, you get your best work out of your workers when you don't work your workers to death.
Exactly where my thoughts were tending... viability would depend on maintenance requirements etc equalling dollar cost vs production. So many great things don't get enough research because commercial interests say 'too expensive' before the research has been done... because the research is expensive. Short sighted wankers, instead of realising the long term benefit to themselves, the short term dollars algorithm says "no"
@@TheDudette-e7j 💯%
Living solar panels.. Never have I thought these words would go together but it is 2024, anything can happen! What a cool thing though!
Truly impressive.
Its the sorta thing like memristors. Every so and so years it comes up..
Also usually its more like tanks rather than panels
Thank you and good morning!
I love biology/chemistry😊😊😊its so much fun to see how life can make life more interesting with every discovery
That Cordoba research sounds promising for oxygen and hydrogen production in space.
that was so cool, the audio and video were slightly out of sync in the intro, something you _never_ see on this channel
Collect and granulate all plastic in Oceans, and make barrels to this....
Algae's reproductive speed is going to make this something we can select for in a reasonable time. Create a huge array of small individual cells. Monitor the voltage on each cell. Select the cell that produces the most power. Kill the algae in all the others and use the algae from the best to repopulate the rest. Repeat at regular intervals choosing the most productive each time.
3:50
Team Rocket now gunna somehow fail spectacularly at catching... Algae?
Given that algae is a living thing that replicates quite quickly i wonder if it would be possible to selectively breed it to maximise output
I think the best part about this channel is how none of these amazing, revolutionary breakthrough technologies ever actually get used.
When I watch videos like these I always hear people extolling about how photosynthesis absorbs Carbon Dioxide to produce Oxygen and other sunstances. But what about Plant Respiration i.e. where plants absorb oxygen and give off Carbon Dioxide? How does this affect the equation and what steps to scientists take to minimize its effects?
this seems like a great way to power an algae farm using the leaky electrons from the photosynthesis process that you're using to grow the algae in the first place. pump the algae through the PV panel using the power from the PV cell and allow it to grow (sure let's throw H2 production in there), when it's ready convert it into sustainable aviation fuel/shipping fuel/fertilizer/chemicals/etc. You could even make a tandem cell on the tank with a quantum dot cell tailored to absorb the wavelengths of light the algae doesn't use.
Since it's sort of related to the wastewater part of this video, a future video about how ammonium sulfate is captured or other means of extracting commercial viable phosphorus or potassium from treatment plants would be appreciated.
A better energy economy also needs a better food economy, mining fertilizer and shipping all over the world isn't great for the climate. We treat the water anyway, might as well pull all the useful stuff out first.
I first heard about this in 2012, some backyard scientist had a crude setup generating electricity. I'm sure the ideas around this have been floating around long before that
AGI is going to be so good at developing this living energy stuff!
TBH growing algae for biomass fuel sounds like a better renewable all round energy source than sandwiching algae between panes for solar power.
what about combining factors using the algae reactor to generate current and react waste, then using biomass from excess algae as it grows for biofuel?
Algae can be used to clean industrial waste water. Algae can easily grow on the waste water. This Algae can then be converted into biofuel.
I wonder if there are algae or bacteria that can absorb heat in tropical areas and convert to energy. It would be useful in tropical areas where there's so much latent heat going around.
Honestly just improving battery technology, and using conventional renewables along with safer Nuclear tech are the most feasible short term solutions to me on a large scale, but I would love to be proven wrong and have the world run on Algae that would be neat.
Maybe keeping the reaction going isn't required if you had a system that cycled through algae 'cells' and at end of cycle life those cells could be recycled for the water and destroy or harvest the remnant for AG fertilizer?
It’s a great proof of concept. And there is a good chance that some aspect of it will find a home in future tech
This type of research gives us a great pool of tech to pick from. Scaling up any tech to nation or global production without causing new environmental problem is the real challenge.
They can find a way to super enhance this process and that just might using low frequencies of ultrasound and /or masers in the future.
Design them as Fuel cell-Bioreactors, perhaps...
If you can get a panel producing ethanol directly, it might wash. Someone below mentioned bio diesel.
Thanks Matt! 👍
At 12:52 How Swamp Thing is Created! 😁
Mike in San Diego. 🌞🎸🚀🖖
This video finally hit me how similar photovoltaics and batteries are
Fun thing you have to reduce the biomass of algae regularly for productivity so you can now anaerobic digest the extra for methane. Developing a stable method of that chain is hard but not impossible
I wonder if the green in the algae won't help absorb ultravioleta and act as a cooling factor.
Why would you need to take the algae out of the pond for solar cells? Just make floating cells and let algae sit in the pond inside the cell. This would work insanely well with wastewater treatment plants and such. Surface makes solar power, while bacteria and algae eat away extra phosphor and nitrogen from water.
I wonder how much power density would be output if the already was replaced with water. Probably comparable lol
This is us saying "idk nature somehow figured it out so why not use it"
I'm loving all this news about Alge and Mushroom tech development. I wonder if they could be combined somehow?
They are, between my toes.
The sight of algae hooked up to a voltmeter reminded me of the parasites that turn wasps into zombies, for some reason.
Scaling up might require reproducing the photosynthesis process and collecting all the electrons produced rather than siphoning off unused electrons from algae.
Certainly worthy of mentioning, this is the first Ive heard of it. Excited for future updates on it Ty Matt enjoyed the Weird Science and the movie also !
I can't imagine how to keep Hydrogen producing ecosystem in 30 deg.C near equator. But, it's interesting to see if someone can come up with a solution.
Hydrogen...again...right...WHAT ABOUT METHANE?...its a FUEL TOO!!!
I appreciate your videos: facts, not fantasy.
Grammar note: singular and plural are elements of number, not of tense. Tense has to do with time: past, present, future.
We use "singular" and "plural" as nouns as well as adjectives.
"I've never referred to algae in the singular before."
Iirc one of the things they were looking into was using algae as a carbon collection source. The process was something along the lines of grow a significant amount at a time, then turn it into charcoal, then bury it away.
I truly think it's the smallest things that will solve the biggest problems.
The real questioni is: can any of these new techs compete on price with the ongoing incremental improvements in PV/wind and batteries before they are providing all the energy we need?
I hope they step this up a notch and combine it with fusion. Here come the grants!🎉
My brain has been kicking around the idea that we can get electricity from a chemical reaction with plants. We would work hand and root together to regreen the earth and balance humanity with nature.
This is very impressive. But I am skeptical. Algae was supposed to be a game changer for making biodiesel. That never went anywhere
Makes you wonder if some day we could extract the exact parts of the algae that breakup water into H2 and O. Make a chemical/enzyme that will do the same.
Now how does the algae do in the winter?
Interesting developments but I think a far simpler approach is using what nature provided us with already... Plants and biogas. In fact its already possible to make carbon neutral gasoline and diesel if you combine biogas with gas to liquids technology.
Cordoba also pioneers of fine Corinthian leather.
Just use algae to sequester carbon, seems like a much more straight-forward way to harness algae for atmospheric carbon mitigation.
Algae grows on ponds. Couldn't we just place the electrodes where the algae is already growing? Cultivate an algae colony in your back yard kiddie pool to generate some watts.
Dude this is worth hauling in a biochemist and forcing him to describe how this works.
What about having producing methane instead of hydrogen? What about harvesting the algae and turning it into biodiesel? Hydrogen and direct electricity production seem like more distant goals.
Algae strain refined and crispir altered... Even if it's on par with current solar cells how much C02 would be removed as they work. Giving green credits as another income🤔...... Or if duckweed doubles every day in some cases why not just feed it in as biomass to current power plants for peaker production alongside renewables
How much longer until we have Bio-Neural Gel packs?
So in theory you could make an Algae Farm that produces electricity and something like bio fuel to maximize profit?
That somehow blows my mind.
Since we get warmth from the sun which is a type of energy we absorb.
We are living solar panels.
Separate for being very interested in your presentations, the low level background music during your presentation makes it harder to hear clearly. This might not be true for everyone but it is very true for me.
maybe multipurpose? the electricity generating algae could also produce something else, or be processed into biofuel or plastics after it's viable lifespan is over.
with GMO Algae, we could possibly triple-stack it's uses, perhaps it could: Generate Electricity, Purify Water, and be processed into biofuel/plastics etc. all with one strain. 🤷
algae makes for an interesting concept, that tend to draw peoples attention out of sheer novelty... With flourine being the most electronegative element, a huge amount of elemental options exist to create an electrical potential difference.. What this means is, the algae is really just being used as an electrolyte.. A very delicate and impractical electrolyte.. the real world will not tolerate such a brittle approach .. Is unlikely to be anything more than interesting conversation piece, and / or investment trap..
Yea that ain’t going nowhere. Plenty of other uses for it that is much more viable.
Yeah, problems: algae & bacteria need light AND feed of fresh water & nutrients, while H2 can leak thru solid steel - hard to compensate for all that in automatic systems. Still, as crude early tests _seem_ to cover so many facets, *is* worth more examination.
GMO algae might be pretty efficient for solar panels if someone can make it happen
What scifi stories could one make from these?🤔🤔🤔common writers wheres my sci-fi at?
As a replacement for traditional solar panels this solution still has the same problems. How well will this work in low sunlight, if at all and you never once mentioned the energy density of this product be it hydrogen or as a replacement for solar panels.
the fact you gotta cover up both sides, it can no longer get light and produce energy
I look forward to a truly 'green' future.
Could we collect the electrons from bodies of water with algae in it?