A synthetic Mitochondria will be developed to enable waste materials to be ‘digested’ and converted into sugars and ultimately into useable energy. Small portable machines will carry out this process replacing internal combustion and batteries as a source of electrical power.
Rather than using permium feedstock they will be tuned to work with abundant waste materials (i.e. paper) or materials of opportunity (i.e. bamboo)
This would be a fascinating idea for the US Army, particularly in areas with no energy security. Rolling blackouts don’t make the Iraqi’s in Baghdad very hapy…I imagine you could tie electricity availability to crime/insurgency rates.