01Start
We did not begin with a perfect system.
We began with jars of sediment, fragile voltage readings, improvised electrodes, and the strange idea that mud electricity could do more than light an LED.
Project story
We wanted mud electricity to touch the water again.
MudTronics starts with microbial power. Our step was asking what happens after the electrons are harvested: could a slow biological current be stored, released, and used for a real disinfection reaction?
living sediment → stored charge → treatment
02Shift
The project clicked when we stopped treating MFCs like batteries.
The current was too small to spend directly. So the design changed: harvest gently, store patiently, then release the energy only when it can do useful chemical work.
03Aim
We wanted the electrons to touch the water again.
MudTronics already proves that living sediment can make power. Our question was what happens after harvesting: can that slow biological current come back as a treatment step?
From the bench
It looked like work before it looked like a system.
The clean diagrams came later. First came clipping wires, rebuilding cathodes, filling containers, and learning which assumptions survived contact with mud.
Array build
A full MFC array on the bench, wired into fragile series/parallel tests.
Cell bodies
Terra cotta membranes wrapped with carbon felt before they became cells.
Chitosan test
A cathode test where the material question became part of the project.
MudBottle
The MudBottle reactor, still held by hand, before it became a clean render.
Material question
We questioned the cathode, not just the circuit.
Some of our cathodes replace PTFE with chitosan to explore a more bio-derived air-cathode layer. That matters because a project about living sediment should also ask what its materials imply.
Chitosan may not be the final answer. But testing it made the prototype feel less like a circuit exercise and more like a materials question connected to the same ecological logic.
Prototype path
Built through iteration.
The story is not that every stage worked immediately. The story is that each weak point made the next design decision clearer.
MFC array
Carbon felt, sediment, oxygen-facing cathodes, and series wiring turned individual weak cells into a source the harvester could work with.
Energy harvesting
The AEM00940 and supercapacitors became the bridge between continuous microbial power and a short treatment pulse.
MudBottle cell
The electrochlorination unit made the project tangible: stored microbial energy becomes a chemical disinfection step.
What we learned
- Microbial power is real, but too small to waste.
- Storage is not an accessory; it is the core translation layer.
- Material choices matter when the project claims an ecological direction.
- Electrode spacing, salinity, and current control decide whether the pulse is useful.
- The best prototype is not the cleanest object. It is the one that teaches fastest.
Team lens
Biology and sediment cells
Energy harvesting and storage
Electrodes and treatment testing
Prototype fabrication and integration
Vision
A lab-scale route toward self-powered treatment in places where electricity, maintenance, and chemical supply are the hard part.