Bacteria Based Biofuel Used to Power World’s Weirdest Car

Thought biofuel was made exclusively from food, animal and other organic waste? Think again! The bright sparks at Columbia University have developed an innovative new recipe made from bacterial spores. It’s quite possibly the world’s weirdest biofuel and adding to its quirkiness is the fact that it’s also used to power a seriously strange car.  

Bacteria + H20 + the power of evaporation = one extraordinary engine

Powered by a floating engine that runs on evaporated water and microbe-assisted biofuel, the car marks a new era of innovation for the sustainable transport industry.

“Eva, the first evaporation-powered car, rolls along, thanks to a moisture mill — a turbine engine driven by water evaporating from wet paper strips lining its walls,” explain the vehicle’s creators.

From microbes to momentum

So what exactly is in the secret formula? The researchers have strategically placed rows of bacterial spores onto strips of double-sided plastic tape. When exposed to moisture the spores start to swell and shrink which causes the tape to bend. The effect mimics that of an artificial muscle that contracts and expands to move whatever it’s attached to.

Could bacteria be the biofuel of the future?

Now that the team has successfully managed to get EVA from A to B they’re already looking at other small devices that could be powered by the piston-driven “floating engine. When hooked up to a generator the engine could create enough electricity to illuminate an LED light, a revelation that could mean serious CO2 savings for the sector.

While the fuel is currently being used to power EVA the team has its sights set on bigger fish. Head researcher Ozgur Sahin maintains that evaporation is a “fundamental force of nature” capable of generating more power than wind or waves. In the future he asserts that the phenomenon could play an integral role in powering the planet. “When evaporation energy is scaled up, the researchers predict, it could one day produce electricity from giant floating power generators that sit on bays or reservoirs, or from huge rotating machines akin to wind turbines that sit above water,” he explains. Already the team is developing an augmented version of the engine that could generate more power per unit than a wind farm!

The biofuel production sphere is continuously pioneering innovations. ‘The Future of Biofuels: Corn, Rapeseed and Chopsticks’ explores how one of the UK’s largest companies plans to launch its own-brand product, PrioBio. As the name suggests, corn, rapeseed and chopsticks play an integral role!