Poo (or dung) battery. as seen on the history channel "all about dung"?

Question

If anyone knows what i'm talking about, can anyone explain how this dung battery works and how to make one? I saw it work on the history channel while the host was in India.

Answer 1

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/07/...

Read this article.

Answer 2

this is a better link.

http://www.edc-cu.org/pdf/TimesofIndia.p...

this describes the process.

(I wonder though, what happens to the waste? it would be considerable toxic I would think)

Answer 3

The dead battery was placed into the dung and what looked like salt applied to surface.  The lead came off the top of exposed battery.  The bugs in the dung have electrical energy and somehow the battery captured the power.  Very interesting.  I want to see that again.

Answer 4

I have not seen the programme so i don't know what they actually showed.But the standard procedure  in the past was to convert the dung to bio gas ( mixture of methane and others) in a biogas generator (which is a simple device)  use that to run a generator and  which energy may be stored in standard lead acid cells.You may be talking about  a much newer technology  which i have not yet come across. Looking forward to  others responses! (As far as i know  there should be two electrodes  seperated by an elecyrolyte  in a battery for electrons to flow)