GENEVA

Swiss researchers have succeeded in building a battery out of mushrooms, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) announced on its website on Thursday.

According to Empa, the mushroom battery is technically speaking a microbial fuel cell.

This fuel cell uses the metabolism of two different types of fungi to generate electricity.

At the anode, the negative pole of the cell, a yeast fungus is fed with sugar. As it processes these nutrients, it releases electrons.

On the other side of the cell, a white rot fungus produces an enzyme that captures the electrons and conducts them out of the cell.

“Like all living organisms, microorganisms convert nutrients into energy. Microbial fuel cells make use of this metabolism and capture part of the energy as electricity,” the researchers write.

“For the first time, we have combined two types of fungi to create a functioning fuel cell,” the researchers continue.

The researchers do not mention how much electricity the mushroom batteries produce. However, according to Empa in its press release: “The living cells do not produce a lot of electricity - but enough to operate a temperature sensor for a few days, for example.”

According to the researchers, such sensors are mainly used in agriculture or environmental research.

The biggest advantage of the mushroom battery, as Empa goes on to explain, is that it is completely non-toxic and biodegradable. “Once its work is done, it dissolves itself from the inside,” the researchers write.

The researchers also point out that the mushrooms are not planted in the battery, but are an integral part of the fuel cell from the outset.

“The components of the mushroom battery are manufactured using 3D printing. This allows the researchers to structure the electrodes in such a way that the microorganisms can access the nutrients as easily as possible,” writes Empa.

According to the researchers, they now want to make the mushroom battery more powerful and durable and look for other types of fungi that are suitable as electricity suppliers.