Bacteria eat electricity and convert it into biofuel

[Judi Lynn]

Bacteria eat electricity and convert it into biofuel
May 24, 2015 - 06:25

New research into electricity eating bacteria could revolutionise renewable energy.

By: Kristian Sjøgren

A group of researchers from the University of Southern Denmark are working on developing a bacteria that can eat surplus electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and solar cells and use it to convert CO2 from everything from biofuel to plastic.

Reminiscent of something out of science fiction, such a bacteria actually already exist, although they can only turn electricity and CO2 into methane and acetate.

The scientists intend to exploit small genetic manipulations to convert the bacteria into miniature factories which can make every thinkable kind of organic products.

“Right now we’re running out of fossil fuels while at the same time we have loads of excess electricity from renewable sources and more than plenty of CO2,” says postdoc Amelia-Elena Rotaru from the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution at the University of Southern Denmark.

More:
http://sciencenordic.com/bacteria-eat-electricity-and-convert-it-biofuel

[William Seger]

1. This seems to have the same "conservation of energy" problem as hydrogen power

... i.e. turning CO2 into biofuel must take more energy than you can get back by burning it. I didn't know we had "loads of excess electricity from renewable sources."

[Lefty Thinker]

2. This is good

Many forms of renewable energy don't handle the problem of matching generation to consumption. Generated but unconsumed energy could potentially be stored as biofuel for peaking demands or mobile applications (like vehicles, which have a difficult time transporting enough potential energy unless it is in the form of burnable hydrocarbons), or converted to raw feedstocks for plastic.