Dr. Ioannis A. Ieropoulos
Bristol Robotics Laboratory, England
Abstract
The development of the microbial fuel cell (MFC)
technology has seen an enormous growth over the last hundred
years since its inception by Potter in 1911. The highest level
of activity has been recorded over the last decade and it is
perhaps considered commonplace that MFCs are primarily suitable
for stationary, passive wastewater treatment applications.
Sceptics have certainly not considered MFCs as serious
contenders in the race for developing renewable energy
technologies. Yet this is the only type of alternative system
that can convert organic waste—widely distributed around the
globe—directly into electricity, and therefore, the only
technology that will allow artificial agents to autonomously
operate in a plethora of environments. This talk will focus on
the implementation of MFCs in real life practical applications
and furthermore, demonstrate how pursuing practical (e.g.
robotic) applications can provide insights of the core MFC
technology in general.
Biographical Information
Ioannis
A. Ieropoulos is the Theme Leader for Bioenergy &
Self-Sustainable Systems at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and
an EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellow. He produced EcoBots I and
II for his PhD, and EcoBot-III as part of an EU FP-6 programme,
which together are the world’s first examples of
self-sustainable robots, utilising waste and biomass. For the
last 10 years he has been working on autonomous robotics and
further improving the MFC technology for the utilisation of
waste into energy. Currently he leads the “Urine-tricity”
project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as
well as the “Decomposing robots” project funded by the
Leverhulme Trust.
