US Patent 8048547 - Biological fuel cells with nanoporous membranes

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8048547.html

This patent based on work done at the U.S. Naval Research Labs helps enable miniaturization of biological fuel cells for powering MEMS or NEMS sensor arrays. Claim 1 reads:

1. A fuel cell comprising:

an anode chamber,

a cathode chamber, and

a nanoporous membrane having a pore size from about 100 nm to about 1000 nm between the anode chamber and the cathode chamber,

wherein the nanoporous membrane sequesters a microbe in the anode chamber and wherein the nanoporous membrane allows nutrients to flow from the cathode chamber to the anode chamber.