The movement of bacteria turns the turbine and generates electricity

Imagine that someday in the future, liquid tanks filled with bacteria that will be alive will become small-scale energy sources.

Computer simulation programs have shown that devices that are similar to wind turbines can now be used to harvest the energy of chaotic microbes in different vortices. This energy source can be used to supply small-sized machines such as robots, telephones or to pump liquids through small grooves. During the simulation, bacteria tend to swim in an orderly manner around the turbine pillars. These turbines will then rotate evenly and produce small electric current.

Previous studies have harnessed the energy of chaotic motion in bacteria by using asymmetric gears . But the new results show that a much simpler system can also bring the same level of efficiency. This will make installation and construction of this device in large numbers in the future much more convenient

"You don't need to work with too many complicated gears. This new system only needs small, simple and efficient grooves," said the biophysicist and co-author of the study, Tyler Shendruk. from Oxford University said. This technique will help to avoid the production of small gears with extremely complex shapes.

Simulation of microbial activity through micro turbines.(Photo source: sciencenews.org).

The researchers simulated the activity of liquids filled with self-propelled particles. They are also known as dense working fluids . These types of liquids can be made up of biological or bacterial engines found in cells - such as myosin and actin proteins, which cause muscle contraction. Such solutions work very chaotic. Each county operates at a fast and arbitrary pace. This makes it very difficult to predict or control the flow. Therefore, it is really a challenge for scientists to generate energy from liquids like this. "They are extremely chaotic, so you can't use them to do anything useful because they create random flows," Shendruk said.

But when Shendruk and his colleagues added to the liquid tank a network of cylindrical rotary engines, each a few centimeters in diameter, they found that the bacteria would reorganize themselves and move along. one direction. From there form a circular flow around the rotating motor. This motion will be used to generate electrical energy but with relatively small intensity.

Scientists have been targeting bacteria for a long time to turn them into a source of energy for humans because of their overcrowding.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UK) have for the first time discovered the mechanism of generating electricity from bacterial cells. This finding opens up the prospect of developing bioelectric plants, collecting charges from cells of billions of bacteria.

Dr. Tom Clarke, head of research, said: "Together with wind and solar energy, bioelectric generation from bacteria is a clean energy source. However, electricity generated from bacteria creates more continuous power generation and not much depends on natural factors such as electricity generation from wind and solar energy ".