Microprocessors powered by algae, Cambridge has been using such a CPU for a year

Cambridge researchers have shown how an algae energy harvester can use sunlight to power a microprocessor for over a year without human assistance.

Algae are of great importance in the green technologies of the future in many ways. They are promising for the production of hydrogen, wastewater treatment, removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.form the basis of biofuels and generate electricity through photosynthesis.

The Cambridge team focused on this last point. Algae is an efficient natural solar cell that converts sunlight into chemical energy and water and carbon dioxide into organic molecules.

The process produces electrons that can be collected and used to power electronic devices. The new algae energy harvester placed a species of blue-green algae in a small container with some water.the whole unit is about the size of an AA battery.

The electrons are collected by the aluminum electrode and transported to run ARM Cortex M0+, a low power microprocessor commonly used in Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The researchers left the system running in a “home” environment where it reliably produced electricity for the microprocessor in the long run. The article only covers the first six months, but the team claims that after a year of inactivity, it’s still up and running.

The team claims that the device could even continue producing electricity in the dark for a while, suggesting that the algae could store some of their “food” for later processing.

The algae-based energy harvester does not produce much energy, but it is enough for IoT devices, which is becoming more and more in our environment.

Made from cheap, common components and lasting much longer than traditional lithium batteries, these devices could be a cleaner source of power, especially in remote areas.