Making electricity "out of thin air" is no longer a far-fetched fantasy. Scientists have managed to use an enzyme to turn air into electricity, with the potential to provide a near-limitless source of clean energy.
The hydrogen-consuming enzyme was discovered by a team from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia from a soil bacterium. It managed to generate electrical current using the atmosphere as its energy source, scientists say.
"We've known for some time that bacteria can use the trace hydrogen in the air as a source of energy," said Professor Greening from Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute. "But we didn't know how they did this, until now," he added.
The enzyme in question is called Huc and pronounced "Huck." Made by bacteria, the enzyme can service in soil, in the ocean, in volcanic craters, and even in Antarctica. This marks the first time scientists have created electricity from it.
How does it conjure electricity, you wonder? Scientists say that Huc works as a hydrogen gas scavenger, implying that unlike other known enzymes, Huc can consume the gas below atmospheric levels.
Owing to this characteristic, it qualifies as a "natural battery" with the ability to make a small electrical current from air or from added hydrogen. This finding opens new avenues for cleaner electricity generation. Someday, devices could make energy from thin air.?
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Dr. Rhys Grinter, who led the study, said that "what [they] really wanted to do was isolate Huc from a bacterium able to scavenge atmospheric hydrogen."?"That is a challenging thing to do, because often these environmental bacteria are hard to cultivate. So, we developed a series of new methods for, first, growing the bacteria, then breaking them open and then using chemistry to try and isolate this single component," Grinter added.
They chose the bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis for this purpose that was discovered in 1884. According to Dr. Grinter, being able to change the bacteria's genomes is important to study and grow it, and with M. smegmatis, such tools exist.
Based on lab work done by team member Ashleigh Kropp, it was ascertained that purified Huc may be stored for long periods. "It¡¯s very stable. It¡¯s possible to freeze the enzyme or heat it to 80¡ă Celsius, and it retains its power to generate energy," Kropp said. "This reflects that this enzyme helps bacteria to survive in the most extreme environments."
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Huc is still a lot of research away from becoming a viable source of energy. "Huc could use the electrons from small amounts of hydrogen in air to perform these chemical modifications, in industrial chemical synthesis," said Dr. Grinter. In addition, Huc may be used as a sensor for hydrogen for it produces electrical current in the presence of hydrogen.
Scientists say that Huc could be used to power small electronic devices using air or low concentrations of hydrogen. However, the concentration of hydrogen in air is very low, which would require additional hydrogen to actually power devices.
What do you think about this enzyme? Let us know in the comments below.?For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.?