A recent presentation at the annual American Chemistry Society National Meeting and Exhibition discussed a new approach to green energy creation in the form of bacteria. A bacteria covered in cadmium sulphide, a super light absorbing material can be used to create green energy. The altered bacteria create acetic acid, a chemical that can be turned into fuel and plastic through use of solar energy, carbon dioxide and water.
Basically the altered bacteria is more efficient than plants are at photosynthesis to use the sun’s energy. The process and possibility has been studied for some time, since ….
“After combing through old microbiology literature, researchers realized that some bugs have a natural defense to cadmium, mercury or lead that lets them turn the heavy metal into a sulphide which the bacteria express as a tiny, crystal semiconductor on their surfaces.”
Studies and experiments are ongoing at both Harvard University by Dr Kelsey Sakimoto and University of California, Berkeley in the lab of Dr Peidong Yang.
The resulting energy collection is done in large vats, open to the sun in which the bacteria can reproduce and within days form crystals that can generate green energy.
