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Microbial fuel cells: Running on gas

Methane is an abundant energy source that is used for power generation in thermal power plants via combustion, but direct conversion to electricity in fuel cells remains challenging. Now, a microbial fuel cell is demonstrated to efficiently convert methane directly to current by careful selection of a consortium of microorganisms.

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Figure 1: Microbial electrochemical oxidation of methane to electricity, fuels, and chemicals.

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Correspondence to Zhiyong Jason Ren.

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Ren, Z. Microbial fuel cells: Running on gas. Nat Energy 2, 17093 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.93

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