E. coli to energy
Katie Nichols envisions a future powered by clean energy. But she concedes there are challenges. Some areas of the Earth don’t get a lot of sun. Other areas don’t get a lot of wind.
“But waste,” she said, “is such a well-distributed resource.”
Populations all over the world both throw out food and go to the bathroom. So Nichols, a third-year biology student in the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences, and eight of her peers are working on an idea to turn organic waste – like food scraps and sewage – into clean energy by tinkering with bacterial DNA.
Photo: Biology major Katie Nichols is studying a novel idea for turning waste streams into hydrogen to provide a clean-energy fuel. She’s part of the team that is presenting its work in Paris this week. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)