Bio-colored solar panels

Environmental sensors for monitoring air quality, using energy from biofuel batteries, are environmentally friendly, laid out like wallpaper, are becoming a reality.

Green algae can be used as ink in inkjet technology. So far, a team of scientists from Imperial College London, Cambridge and Central Saint Martins (UK) have found a way to integrate the circuit with cyanobacteria into paper prints, The photovoltaic (bio) panel, which functions as both a solar cell and as a biofuel.

Optical background bio-energy. Photo: Imperial College London.

This battery operates on the principle that green algae still live after being printed on paper and can be photosynthesized, if harvested, will produce a small amount of electricity, usually after about 100 hours. IPad-sized panels can power electronic clocks or small LEDs and open up the potential for alternative forms of energy - using light-emitting bacteria. The microbial biophotoltaics (BPV) are called cyanobacteria because of their photosynthetic function to produce electricity and remove electrons from water.

More importantly, it is the potential for the manufacture of electronic devices for medical or environmental applications. These may be glucose monitor blood glucose monitors, or environmental sensors - laid out like wallpaper to measure home air quality. The great advantage of such devices is that they are designed for single use, easily removed and not harmful to the environment when leaving only the biodegradation with bacteria.

However, the production of such devices on an industrial scale is still limited by the cost of production, low power output and short product lifecycle - a challenge for scientists.