Posted on 05/27/2023 3:03:20 AM PDT by paladinkc
In an advance that could deliver a constant stream of sustainable electricity, scientists have developed Air-gen, a device that uses a natural protein to create electricity from air moisture.
(Excerpt) Read more at theengineer.co.uk ...
“ You mean I can pish into the air and recharge my EV ?”
You can do that as long as your intake is Bud Light.
You can do that as long as your intake is Bud Light.>>>>>>>
This is shaping up better than nuclear fusion. ( sarc.)
Very low power output (small electronic devices) with no hint it could be scaled up to be a major source of electricity.
They should name it e-Wet.
Just like the “air-water” device that was supposed to “save the planet”. Except it didn’t work in the most arid regions on earth due to lack of moisture in the atmosphere.
Then just breathing will be banned as a danger to 'climate control'.
Mankind is a carbon creature, as well as mineral and moisture.
This is a war against nature
John Galt probably has the patent.
“Water has volume, there fore the “battery” must continue to expand.”
The water is dehydrated during the process and then exists as a powder, which occupies much less space. Later, when the water is again needed, you simply rehydrate the powder by adding...water.
Makes electricity,,, cool,, now make plastics out of air and we can get rid of fossil fuels ,,,.
Civilization without oil or coal equals the stone age.
The bacteria involved is Geobacter. This bacteria is unfamiliar to me so I read up on it a very small bit. It's a soil bacteria that has some interesting capabilities apparently pump electrons that have some amount of ability to change the oxidative state of some metal ions. I have the impression that some kind of work is taking place to see if Geobacter can be useful for in situ soil remediation where the soil contains toxic metals.
In the 1970s and in college, I worked on a research project on something roughly similar. It used a different bacteria, Halobacter, that naturally lives in high salt concentrations that are not compatible with much of any other organism. It does this by pumping electrons to maintain the ionic balance inside the bacteria cell such that it can sustain its life functions. Our techniques were pretty crude but were sufficient to show we could generate a trivial electric potential. So, generally think of this as a zero utility curiosity.
The OP uses an interesting term “nano wires”. To me, this suggests that they may be harvesting very specific proteins. If they can also can orient the protein within the support substrate in the same north-south direction plus the same positive-negative orientation, the electrical potential can be way greater than that old, caveman work with Halobacteria.
Overall…. Color me skeptical that this ever becomes commercially viable.
My opinions….
Dihydrogen Monoxide is among the leading killers of children. Especially in the summertime. A city leader in San Fransisco actually did try to ban it.
The water batteries around here make for good sailing, fishing, and if one had scuba gear could find many guns in the bottom.
Air-gen, at this point, is a low voltage device. What would it take to up scale it to power the typical needs of a house?
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