:quality(80)/cdn-kiosk-api.telegraaf.nl/37f821d8-52a1-11ea-a726-0255c322e81b.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1)
How it works? The researchers use natural proteins. They get energy from the moisture in the air. Moisture is naturally present in the air, so in theory the source is almost inexhaustible.
The scientists have invented the ‘Air gene’. Literally an air-driven generator. It contains tiny electrically conductive wires with the name “protein nanowires”. These wires, which are produced by microbes, have a connection with electrodes.
Even in the Sahara ?!
“We literally make electricity out of the thin air”, Says electrical engineer Jun Yao on the website of his university. He calls the invention “great and exciting.” “This system produces clean energy 24/7.”
Yao and microbiologist Derek Lovley point out that other systems can only provide energy for a short time – less than 50 seconds. The Air-gen has a more constant supply and is “clean and cheap”. The two promise that high humidity is not necessary at all; the system would even work in the Sahara.
The current Air-gen, which now only supplies small devices with energy.
Ⓒ UMass Amherst / Yao and Lovley labs
—
No sunlight or wind is used as with solar poles or windmills. This new system can therefore work anywhere, day and night, weather or no weather.
Crucial role for the shit bacteria
Remarkably enough, Lovley’s lab recently found a new way to make those protein threads. The poo bacterium is the pivot in this process. “We have turned E. coli into a protein nanowire factory.”
“The ultimate goal is to turn this into large-scale systems,” says Yao. “This system can be put into wall paint, for example. If you paint your house with it, it can partly provide your own energy supply. Or we build large generators. As soon as we can do this on an industrial scale, we can give a major boost to renewable energy. ”
Scientists Jun Yao and Derek Lovley (photo) are considered pioneers and authorities in their field.
Ⓒ University of Massachusetts Amherst
—
However, it is not nearly that far yet; the researchers will need time and money to actually come to a product.
Nobody believed this except for a handful of scientists
Although scientists Jun Yao and Derek Lovley can now make beautiful ornaments with this successful prototype, they owe thanks to others. For a long time, no one believed that such a thing – extracting energy from water vapor – was possible, except for a few opposed scientists.
“British factory workers from 1840 felt electrical shock when they came into contact with boilers. That was striking, but was quickly forgotten.”
One of them was Fernando Galembeck from the University of Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil). He elaborated on findings from 1840. At that time, British factory workers felt electrical shocks when they came into contact with boilers. That was striking, but was quickly forgotten.
Galembeck, however, believed that water vapor could contain energy. He thereby went against the definition of “electron neutrality”, an important principle in science. Many scientists did not believe his ideas, although Galembeck also had supporters, the English-language popular science magazine New Scientist wrote in 2010.
Spiritual father incense in Nature
Jun Yao and Derek Lovley published yesterday about their potentially revolutionary invention in the highly respected Nature, and quote in it three scientific articles from Galembeck, which as a spiritual father get the respect that he deserves.
–
