Team:UiOslo Norway/Human Practices
Everybody needs a helping hand
The inception of BioSol
We started the project focusing on the inefficiency of silicon based solar cells in the green-blue region of the visible spectrum, which are the wavelengths of the visible spectrum the sun sends out with highest intensities[1]. We drew our inspiration from a paper by Srivastava et al.[3] where they provide a description of their biogenic solar cell. We decided early on that our end product should resemble the biogenic solar cells, where the whole pigment-producing bacteria is being used instead of only the pigments. We managed to narrow our project idea down by choosing lycopene as our main of pigment for our model organism, Escherichia coli.
Considering the different types of radiation that solar cells get exposed to, we directed our attention towards extremophiles, which are known to live in extreme conditions. Therefore, our initial project focused on incorporating the genes involved in the lycopene biosynthesis pathway from the extremophile Deinococcus radiodurans[2] into E. coli. The expression of enzymes from such a resilient bacterium would hopefully result in our model organism having similar characteristics, which would be useful in the solar cell.
Customized survey
After settling on the project idea, we created a survey to get the general public’s opinion and perspective on topics related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). We wanted to use the results to adjust the project design in order to fit the market need in case BioSol would eventually develop into a real product. Our goals for the survey were:
- to know the community's interest in receiving energy from an sustainable source
- to know what are the most important aspects when choosing an energy source
- to know the thoughts of the population concerning the use of GMOs as a biological tool
Results: low carbon emission sourcing is important for more than 70% of respondents
Impact: confirmed that there is a need for our product on the market
Results: environmental friendliness, price and cost efficiency are the most important criteria, while frequency of maintenance, size and aesthetics are among the least important factors in decision making
Impact: As a high frequency of maintenance is well tolerated, we shifted our focus on designing BioSol to allow for easier maintenance at the expense of increased maintenance frequency
Results: the use of GMOs is generally accepted, especially in the energy sector (78%)
Impact: allowed for the project to take into consideration both the use of live and dead bacteria, as we initially only considered dead bacteria over fears around public opinion
Our project after UiO:Energy
Soon after deciding on a project, we contacted UiO:Energy, a separate department of the university, which supports students working with energy-related projects. As this was the first time we presented our project idea, it became clear that we lacked some background information on the current abilities of solar cells. We received very useful feedback from the department, which inspired us to find more information platforms and contacts that could help us understand the field of solar energy, what kind of issues current commercial solar cells have and what kind of new technology we need to put on the market in order to increase the use of solar panels.
Impact: pointed us towards the current status of the silicon based solar cell and motivated us to get in contact with the local experts at the Norwegian solar cell conference
Norwegian solar cell conference 2019
The two-day event gave us the opportunity to present our idea to multiple experts in the field and to get valuable feedback that further shaped our project. In addition, we attended different presentations through which we were introduced to the current status, ongoing research and challenges of solar cells. These were the major take-aways from the current research in the field:
- the current research has reached a point where it is difficult to increase the efficiency, especially in low light conditions
- main focus is on different materials for doping, meaning that researchers are starting from scratch
- research is still on going to improve the purification methods of silicon to make it cheaper, easier, and more efficient
- the major problem in current solar cells is detection of damaged cells, which greatly reduce output and are expensive to work around
Impact: translated into designing our biogenic solar cell to be more effective in low light conditions;
Impact: gave us extra motivation to try and find a viable solution for the biogenic solar cells in order to become a marketable product
Impact: focused our attention on titanium dioxide as a lower-cost alternative with an environmental friendlier production process
Impact: wanted to increase the output of the solar cell by using the bacteria´s natural chemical processes in order to detect damaged solar cells and increase the lifespan of BioSol panels (see design page)
BioSol after Alexander Ulyashin
After a brainstorming session on possible solutions for the issues flagged during the solar cell conference, we realized that what we needed was the guidance of a solar cell expert.
We contacted Alexander Ulyashin from SINTEF who has worked with the development of solar cells for many years. Initially, he was quite skeptical about how our solar cell would work, but he thought it was an interesting idea that he was eager to see brought to life.
Impact: advice on how to build a functioning dye sensitized solar cell and encouraged us to use ITO glass instead of FTO glass, which ultimately ended up influencing the design of our solar cell prototype
BioSol after Ola Nilsen and Elina Melteig
While looking for the additional things we needed for the prototype, we went to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oslo where we met Ola Nilsen and Elina Melteig from the Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology. Both showed interest in what we were doing and were willing to help us. In addition to being an adviser at the department, Elina is working with integrating nanotechnology into high schools.
Through the Center of Materials Science and nanotechnology, Ola and Elina provided us with an easy protocol explaining how to make a dye sensitized solar cell. The use of this protocol together with the paper from Srivastava et al., resulted in us making our own protocol for building the solar cell prototype. Furthermore, Elina made us realize that we needed to make more control solar cells to both make sure that our solar cell actually worked.
Impact: provided an inspiration on how to make a biogenic solar cell and guided us on how to properly validate the results
BioSol after Kenneth Schneider
Kenneth Schneider, of the Department of Biosciences at the University of Oslo, worked on developing electrode materials for photo-microbial fuel cells during his PhD. Therefore, he was an obvious source of expertise for us.
He aided us with the design of the solar cell and choice of transparent conductive oxide, as well as helping us formulate the precise concentrations and protocols needed in the fabrication of the solar cell. He further fielded questions to help us better understand and account for the physical aspects of the solar panel.
Impact: improved protocol for building the biogenic solar cell prototype
A better BioSol
Taking into consideration the results of our survey, we concluded that there is a great market for products that can aid in the reduction of people's carbon footprint. In addition, we decided that the biogenic solar cell should be a complement to existing solar cells and not be used as a complete replacement. As neither the traditional solar cells or the biogenic ones have a very high efficiency, we think that a combination of both would improve the output, especially in low light conditions.
As a result of multiple conversations with experts, we changed our main focus from improving just the biological component toward trying to find ways to improve the whole system. This resulted in us coming up with mechanisms that can increase the lifespan of the solar cell. We learned that the bacteria should, in theory, be alive to gain the advantages of improved maintenance. The bacteria being used will mimic the mechanisms found in nature, where bacteria can survive for years without much nutrients by having minimal metabolic activity and no cell divisions [4]. This will essentially increase the lifespan of our solar cell. As for the problem of damage detection, our solar cell is based on a living component and the death of the bacterial cells could be easily detectable by visual inspection as the dead bacteria will no longer be producing pigments.
References
- https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2013/07/03/what-is-the-color-of-the-sun/
- Tian, B., & Hua, Y. (2010). Carotenoid biosynthesis in extremophilic Deinococcus–Thermus bacteria. Trends in Microbiology, 18(11), 512–520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2010.07.007
- Srivastava, S.K., Piwek, P., Ayakar, S.R., Bonakdarpour, A., Wilkinson, D.P., Yadav, V.G., 2018. A Biogenic Photovoltaic Material. Small 14, 1800729. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201800729
- Haruta, S., Kanno, N., 2015. Survivability of Microbes in Natural Environments and Their Ecological Impacts. Microbes and environments / JSME 30, 123–125. https://doi.org/10.1264/jsme2.ME3002rh