Chinese researchers succeeded in creating a biodegradable microchip already a decade ago. The semiconductor silicon was replaced with biodegradable nanocellulose fibrils. Meanwhile, an American research group succeeded in producing biological energy using adenosine triphosphate: the molecular machinery of living systems, ATP, was able to provide power to an integrated circuit.

In humans, animals, and plants, many processes function through electricity. For example, a small electric current flows through the leaves of trees, generated by photosynthesis. Our nervous system operates through electrical impulses. ATP consists of energy packets through which our cells produce energy. Living organic material therefore often carries electrical currents, which can also be utilized in technology.

The extraction of silicon, copper, and other minerals required for electronics demands massive mining operations and energy-intensive recycling processes. For this reason, manufacturing electronic components partly from biomass could make sense in the future. Mining is one of the industrial sectors and forms of land use that cause the greatest environmental destruction. More than 50 million tons of electronic waste are generated every year, much of it containing toxic minerals and plastics. Recycling is often outsourced to poor countries, where waste processing is unregulated, dangerous, and environmentally destructive.

Using biomass in electronic components would not require expanding the forestry industry if we prioritized more wisely how we use wood and biomass. Only a few percent of harvested wood is used for construction timber, furniture, wooden objects, and similar durable purposes. Most of it is unnecessarily turned into paper, cardboard, packaging materials, or burned for energy. Burning wood for energy is an irrational waste of valuable material resources, just as using paper for unnecessary advertisements and excessive packaging is wasteful. Instead, wood could be used for electronic components.

Future computers and electronic devices could partly be built from biomass, making them more ecological and easier to recycle — even biodegradable and compostable.

Organic technology would in many ways be more environmentally sustainable and could become part of a circular economy and an eco-society.

Daniel Elkama

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/these-new-computer-chips-are-made-from-wood-180955471/