Process To Produce Electrical Current From Thin Air
No, this is not John Galt’s fictitious generator that drew static electricity from the atmosphere. This is offered as real and uses a bacteria discovered in the muck and mud of Potomac River 30+ years ago. Enterprising Scientists have discovered that the bacteria produces a thin film of protein that absorbs moisture from the air, which produces an electrical current as a byproduct of the process. They hope to expand the process to commercial scale by coaxing trusty old e. coli to produce large amount of the nanofilm by jiggling it’s dna —
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..."We are literally making electricity out of thin air," said electrical engineer Jun Yao from the University of Massachusetts Amherst back in February. "The Air-gen generates clean energy 24/7."
The claim may sound like an overstatement, but a recent study by Yao and his team describes how the air-powered generator can indeed create electricity with nothing but the presence of air around it. It's all thanks to the electrically conductive protein nanowires produced by Geobacter (G. sulfurreducens, in this instance).
The Air-gen consists of a thin film of the protein nanowires measuring just 7 micrometres thick, positioned between two electrodes, but also exposed to the air.
Because of that exposure, the nanowire film is able to adsorb water vapour that exists in the atmosphere, enabling the device to generate a continuous electrical current conducted between the two electrodes.
The team said the charge is likely created by a moisture gradient that creates a diffusion of protons in the nanowire material...
https://www.sciencealert.com/in-good...f-thin-air/amp
