Kudos to the researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who have come up with a bacterium that is capable of producing electricity. This breed of bacteria in the Geobacter species lives and grows on hydrogen solely and is an exclusive electron donor.
Carbon dioxide on the other hand is sufficient for all the carbon requirements of its survival. A senior researcher with the Lovely Lab Group’s study team, Amit Kumar says that this bacterium open up a huge window of opportunity for generate electricity solely from hydrogen.
The lab is led by Dr. Derek and has been working on the experiments of Geobacter bacterium since the time the first specimen was obtained from Potomac River as an isolated Geobacter metallireducens in 1987.
The species were exceptional with their abilities to bioremediation, electron transfer capabilities, bioenergy potential along with their ability in moving electrons out of the cells thereby hauling them over long distances via conductive filaments called microbial nano-wires. Researchers were obviously curious enough for their role in the environment and the ways it could be used for electricity generation.
The Lovely team has also worked upon a similar species called G. sulfurreducens that is able to produce electrons by decomposing organic compounds of carbon via a graphite electrode such as gold or iron oxide and minister as the sole acceptor of the electron.
A strain of these bacteria was engineered with a microbial fuel and the experiments concluded that with the restriction of hydrogen passage to the cell, the electron numbers went down considerably and the electrodes were not able to produce enough electricity. The final findings will be reported in the 113 chapter of General Meeting of American Society for Microbiology this year.
