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...
Saved in:
Published in: | Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 4992 - 10 |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Journal Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
11-06-2024
Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | Get full text |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
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. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2041-1723 2041-1723 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-024-49429-0 |