'Strange beast' alive from the primitive earth: Inhaling air, exhaling electricity

The planet Earth billions of years ago had biological power plants. that you had to use a microscope to see.

Research led by microbiologist Cornelia Welte of Radboud University (Netherlands) has discovered an incredible archaea species, capable of converting methane gas into electricity just by. breathing.

Archaea are bacteria-like microorganisms that have existed since the dawn of time. The earliest evidence of archaea dates back 3.5 billion years.

Archaea

Their lineage has survived to this day, as mysterious and peculiar "living fossils", surviving in even the strangest and most extreme conditions, for example breaking down methane gas to breathe and "eat". " in an oxygen-deficient environment.

According to Science Alert, the archaea used in the study are Methanoperedens belonging to the ANME group, which are anaerobic autotrophic archaea. They are capable of oxidizing methane with a little nitrate as a catalyst.

The team cultured the archaea on one of the electrodes and found that the methane conversion generates fluctuating currents of up to 274 milliamperes/cm2.

31% of the energy in the methane they consume is converted into electricity, which is even more efficient than some human bioelectric plants - which also use the option of converting methane into electricity. Therefore, these archaea can help us to improve the efficiency of bio power plants.

According to a paper published in Frontiers in Microbiology, the discovery also offers the potential for an extremely efficient bio-battery.

This is also an especially good energy use option for the environment because methane is a strong greenhouse gas, if it is "used" less, it is very beneficial for the fight against climate change. Moreover, the generation of clean energy by archaea will also help to limit the use of fossil fuels.