The Digg.com headlines for today include research about bacterium that produces electricity by consuming sugar. The Escherichia coli bacteria actually excrete hydrogen after consuming sugar. An electric fuel cell is then powered by the hydrogen.

The team fed Escherichia coli bacteria diluted caramel and nougat waste. The bacteria consumed the sugar and produced hydrogen, which they make with the enzyme hydrogenase, and organic acids. The researchers then used this hydrogen to power a fuel cell, which generated enough electricity to drive a small fan.

They are also using the bacteria to recover palladium metal from the spent catalytic converters of older vehicles.

MagCap Engineering seems to think electricity grows on trees. Much like the UMASS Amherst professor quoted in the article, I am extremely skeptical. Will this technology further deplete the world’s forests? Does this output more energy than it requires?

However, I find it hard to believe any investor would consider a relationship unless MagCap answered these questions beforehand. Maybe they talked the investors into believing 12V was six times the energy and therefore more efficient. Hopefully they can increase the electric potential without decreasing the available current. That would result in six times the energy.