Growth of electroautotrophic microorganisms using hydrovoltaic energy through natural water evaporation

It has been previously shown that devices based on microbial biofilms can generate hydrovoltaic energy from water evaporation. However, the potential of hydrovoltaic energy as an energy source for microbial growth has remained unexplored. Here, we show that the electroautotrophic bacterium Rhodopseu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 4992 - 10
Main Authors: Ren, Guoping, Ye, Jie, Hu, Qichang, Zhang, Dong, Yuan, Yong, Zhou, Shungui
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 11-06-2024
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Summary:It has been previously shown that devices based on microbial biofilms can generate hydrovoltaic energy from water evaporation. However, the potential of hydrovoltaic energy as an energy source for microbial growth has remained unexplored. Here, we show that the electroautotrophic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris can directly utilize evaporation-induced hydrovoltaic electrons for growth within biofilms through extracellular electron uptake, with a strong reliance on carbon fixation coupled with nitrate reduction. We obtained similar results with two other electroautotrophic bacterial species. Although the energy conversion efficiency for microbial growth based on hydrovoltaic energy is low compared to other processes such as photosynthesis, we hypothesize that hydrovoltaic energy may potentially contribute to microbial survival and growth in energy-limited environments, given the ubiquity of microbial biofilms and water evaporation conditions. Devices based on microbial biofilms can be used to generate hydrovoltaic energy from water evaporation. Here, Ren et al. show that, in addition, electroautotrophic bacteria can use evaporation-induced hydrovoltaic electrons for growth in biofilms.
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ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-49429-0