STAR Microbial Fuel Cell

STAR Microbial Fuel Cell

Project Leads: Sam Phillips

Sponsor:

Project Theme: Energy Conservation and Efficiency

2020 Application Submission

Project Description: STAR‘s Microbial Fuel Cell project aims to reduce the carbon footprint and waste produced by our engineering team, and to set a precedent for improving sustainability in all areas – even those such as rocketry which seem, at a first glance, to be the antithesis of sustainability. STAR is Berkeley’s rocketry team, and our microbial fuel cell is a power source for the electronics on our latest rocket – the fuel cell uses sewage and bacteria to create electricity. This removes the need for lithium batteries, whose production is very damaging to the environment. We are planning on taking our fuel cell with us to rocketry competitions, to talk to other rocketry teams about how they can reduce their carbon footprint too!

Goals of Project: Improve the sustainability of our rockets and draw attention to sustainability within the rocketry community.