NO PEAKING:

Bacteria Desalinate Water, Generate Power (Eric Bland, 8/25/09, Discovery News)

"(Using this approach) you basically need zero power input, and it could even produce energy if you use organic material as the input," said Liu.

For now, microbial fuel cells, whether they desalinate water, generate electricity or create hydrogen, methane or other gases, are limited to small-scale laboratory devices. That will change next month, however, when Logan and his colleagues install a larger microbial fuel cell to turn waste water from a Napa Valley winery into hydrogen gas.

"This project is just a demonstration for now," said Logan. "But ultimately (the winery) could use the power generated by the microbial fuel cell to power cars, forklifts or other vehicles."