Wednesday, September 08, 2021

Bacteria may hold key for energy storage, biofuels

Recommendable! This actually suggest we can recycle carbon dioxide from the air to biofuels to carbon dioxide, repeat!

However, the underlying research article does not really address the issue of biofuels!

"... How to build a low-cost, environmentally friendly and large-scale system for storing and retrieving energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Currently, there are no sustainable methods for storing green energy, as batteries are environmentally toxic.
The answer ... a bacteria called Shewanella oneidensis. The microbe takes electrons into its metabolism, and uses the energy to make essential precursors for ‘fixing’ carbon, which occurs when plants or organisms take carbon from CO2 and add it to an organic molecule, usually a sugar. ... engineering a new bacteria that goes a step further by using those precursor molecules to make organic molecules, such as biofuels. ..."

"Extracellular electron transfer (EET) could enable electron uptake into microbial metabolism for the synthesis of complex, energy dense organic molecules from CO2 and renewable electricity ...
Knockout of each gene eliminates extracellular electron uptake, yet in four of the five cases produces no significant defect in electron donation to an anode. This result highlights both distinct electron uptake components and an electronic connection between aerobic and anaerobic electron transport chains that allow electrons from the reversible EET machinery to be coupled to different respiratory processes in S. oneidensis. Homologs to these genes across many different genera suggesting that electron uptake by EET coupled to respiration could be widespread. ..."

Bacteria may hold key for energy storage, biofuels | Cornell Chronicle


Looks simple? 😉


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