Featuring biological fuel cells made from moss, the table has been created by Alex Driver and Carlos Peralta from the IfM and Paolo Bombelli from the University’s Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Department.

A team of designers from the IfM's Design Management Group are exhibiting a novel 'moss table' at the London Design Festival this week. The table will showcase an emerging technology called  biophotovoltaics (BPV) which uses the natural process of photosynthesis to  generate electrical energy. Researchers are  exploring how moss, algae and plants could be used as a source of renewable  energy in the future.

Featuring biological fuel cells made from  moss, the table has been created by Alex Driver and Carlos Peralta from the IfM and Paolo Bombelli from the  University’s Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Department.

Still at early stages, BPV has the potential  to power small devices such as digital clocks. Low cost BPV devices may become  competitive alternatives to conventional renewable technologies such as  bio-fuels in the next ten years.

The table is based on research into  biophotovoltaics funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research  Council (EPSRC). This pioneering work involves collaboration between the  Departments of Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Plant  Sciences at Cambridge University, and the Chemistry Department at Bath  University. The research is led jointly by Dr Adrain Fisher, Professor  Christopher Howe and Professor Alison Smith at Cambridge, and Dr Petra Cameron  at Bath.

Carlos Peralta said: “The moss table provides us with a  vision of the future. It suggests a world in which self-sustaining  organic-synthetic hybrid objects surround us, and supply us with our daily  needs in a clean and environmentally friendly manner.”

Dr  James Moutrie, Head of the IfM's Design Management Group said: “The table we are exhibiting this week demonstrates the ways in  which designers can play a valuable role in early stage scientific research by  identifying commercial potential and is one of the outcomes from our Design in  Science research project.”

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