MICROBIAL FUEL CELLS-CHALLENGES AND APPLICATIONS

摘要

The late Nobel laureate Richard Smalley often said that "energy is the single greatest challenge facing humanity." Energy needs in the U.S. and the world continue to increase, driving demand at an unsustainable pace. Possible options are carbon-based alternatives to oil, such as methane hydrates and the conversion of coal into methane gas, and the use of less readily available oil reservoirs and oil shale. But do we really want to use these fuels? Climate change is being driven by the atmospheric release of greenhouse gases like CO_2, and an impending global energy crisis is coming at a time when we can least afford to release additional stored carbon. Nuclear power offers a carbon-free approach to energy generation, but no good solutions for nuclear waste exist. Perhaps Smalley should have said that energy is the single greatest environmental challenge facing humanity.