News "Generator that uses bacteria to create electricity could soon be used to power smartphones"

[Qonundrum]

https://www.news.com.au/technology/...s/news-story/a001463d3e171140aaebf2f0be18e496

The Air-gen generator uses a natural protein to create electricity from water vapour.

“We are literally making electricity out of thin air,” said electrical engineer and Assistant Professor Jun Yao, who led the development of the Air-gen at the University of Massachusetts Amherst alongside microbiologist and Professor Derek Lovley.

The generator uses a film of nanometre scale (one billionth of a metre) protein wires harvested from Geobacter sulfurreducens, a microbe that can produce electricity.

The wires are connected to electrodes and conduct electricity using naturally present water vapour in the air.

Article has more...

It's impressive today's technology requires so little voltage (and amperage) to make use of new ideas... And a smartphone/dehumidifier rolled into one. If enough of these units exist in a relatively consolidated interior area, won't that lead to drier air indoors after a few hours that'll be great until winter when indoor humidity can get lower than even 19 percent... optimal humidity is between 35 and 50 to begin with, depending on what the function is...

Holes and slits in phone protective cases would be needed... the impact would be nominal... and in tandem with so-called "supercapacitors", this could replace lithium for some devices for sure...

But how large in the end, noting that smartphones require a lot of power and nobody wants something as wimpy as a Commodore 64 in their pocket... If scientists complain over "2 degree C rise in global temperature in a hundred years" and the theorized catastrophes in some regions, and noting artificially lowering humidity would create air pressure changes and also how water elsewhere in the vicinity would also evaporate to make up the relative difference... will people have water bowls in buildings to make up for the inevitable differences and not potable water at that? And, of course, macroecological theories if taken to campy extremes: Not to run around like Chicken Little, but all this could eventually cause unwanted climate change in some venues, which thrive on more moist conditions. Think big no matter what. And at least nobody's talked about this before. But the number of units and how big each unit is is still a factor... on a small scale, left to heart monitors and other low power devices, the impact does seem to be negligible... heck, for heart monitors while exercising and all that sweat in the same area being evaporated... one could probably wear a dozen units and they'd all work to keep measuring the tickyticker.

 

[Dryson]

This little bit of information might help.

Electric bacteria are forms of bacteria that directly consume and excrete electrons at different energy potentials without requiring the metabolization of any sugars or other nutrients.[1] Shewanella and Geobacter are two known types of electric bacteria. This form of life appears to be especially adapted to low-oxygen environments. Normal life forms require an oxygen environment in which to release the excess of electrons which are produced in metabolizing sugars. In a low oxygen environment, this pathway for releasing electrons is not available. Instead, electric bacteria "breath" metals instead of oxygen, which effectively results in both an intake of and excretion of electrical charges.

 

[1001001]

Electric bacteria

That would be a great name for a band.

 

[Dryson]

Electric Bacteria could solve a lot of problems for space exploration situations. Instead of dragging bulky and expensive lithium batteries around, once developed, the Electric Bacteria could potentially excrete enough electrons to produce a charge that can be stored in a capacitor.

 

[publiusr]

For vampire lovers, perhaps blood has another purpose:

In a new study, scientists at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory report a new synthetic system that could guide electron transfer over long distances. The new system is made up of two components plucked from nature. One is a protein from bacteria and the other a molecule found in our blood.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Taming_electrons_with_bacteria_parts_999.html

Scientists from Northwestern University and Caltech have produced electricity by simply flowing water over extremely thin layers of inexpensive metals, including iron, that have oxidized. These films represent an entirely new way of generating electricity and could be used to develop new forms of sustainable power production.The films are transparent, a feature that could be taken advantage of in solar cells. The researchers intend to study the method using other ionic liquids, including blood.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/..._over_extremely_thin_layers_of_metal_999.html