Interesting study on using the redox properties of MB as a way to store electrons and then extract them as needed - i.e. the primary mechanism behind any modern battery.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/celc.201801097
This bright blue dye is found in fabric: Could it also power batteries? A component of wastewater in textile-making is good at tasks associated with energy storage
"...A sapphire-colored dye called methylene blue is a common ingredient in wastewater from textile mills. But University at Buffalo scientists think it may be possible to give this industrial pollutant a second life. In a new study, they show that the dye, when dissolved in water, is good at storing and releasing energy on cue. This makes the compound a promising candidate material for redox flow batteries -- large, rechargeable liquid-based batteries that could enable future wind farms and solar homes to stockpile electricity for calm or rainy days."
"...What Cook and Kosswattaarachchi have shown -- so far -- is that methylene blue is good at important tasks associated with energy storage. In experiments, the scientists built two simple batteries that employed the dye -- dissolved in salt water -- to capture, store and release electrons (all crucial jobs in the life of a power cell). The first battery the researchers made operated with near-perfect efficiency when it was charged and drained 50 times: Any electrical energy the scientists put in, they also got out, for the most part."
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/celc.201801097
This bright blue dye is found in fabric: Could it also power batteries? A component of wastewater in textile-making is good at tasks associated with energy storage
"...A sapphire-colored dye called methylene blue is a common ingredient in wastewater from textile mills. But University at Buffalo scientists think it may be possible to give this industrial pollutant a second life. In a new study, they show that the dye, when dissolved in water, is good at storing and releasing energy on cue. This makes the compound a promising candidate material for redox flow batteries -- large, rechargeable liquid-based batteries that could enable future wind farms and solar homes to stockpile electricity for calm or rainy days."
"...What Cook and Kosswattaarachchi have shown -- so far -- is that methylene blue is good at important tasks associated with energy storage. In experiments, the scientists built two simple batteries that employed the dye -- dissolved in salt water -- to capture, store and release electrons (all crucial jobs in the life of a power cell). The first battery the researchers made operated with near-perfect efficiency when it was charged and drained 50 times: Any electrical energy the scientists put in, they also got out, for the most part."
The first thing a pharma company does before it sells a drug is try to ban all generic versions or variations of the chemical it sells. In the case of methylene blue FDA will probably not go with such an extreme measure as it is used for so many other things clinically. So, since it cannot get banned, the second more effective tactic is to scare people from using the generic chemical due to contamination of some sort. This second trick has been done many times and pharma companies have been caught and fined multiple times for trying to push F.U.D. about a competing drug. I think the most recent story was about "contamination" of the drug Valsartan, and other recent FUDs targeted aspirin, taurine, and even pregnenolone.
