News: Blue green bacteria may help green electricity

Blue green bacteria may help

generate 'green' electricity

Washington: Using blue green bacteria, researchers have for the first time developed a way to convert sun light directly into electricity in a CO2-free manner.

          The study illustrates that electogenic workings of cyanobacteria is an important conduit of solar energy into the biosphere, says associate professor Ilia Baskakov,PhD. Center for Biomedical Engineering and Technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Baskakov, who led the study, says that such findings could lead to ways to generate energy in a self-sustainable manner using renewable resources. "Climate change related to global warming and the demand for energy are two of society's most pressing problems and both can be solved if new technologies are developed," says Baskakov.

          The researchers discovered that cyanobacteria possess a natural light-dependent electrogenic activity. Cyanobacteria fix within themselves an estimated 25 Giga tons of carbon, in the form of CO2 per year and account for 20-30% of Earth's total photosynthetic productivity.

            There exists a diversity of different species of cyanobacteria all over the world, from temperate ponds to some of the most inhospitable environments imaginable such as the Sahara desert or Antarctic glaciers. Colonies of cyanobacteria can form filaments, sheets or even hollow balls. On a global scale, the amount of solar energy that is harvested by cyanobacteria exceeds more than 25 times the energy consumed by humans.

         Cyanobacteria utilise the energy of sunlight to drive photosynthesis, a process where the energy of light is used to split water molecules into oxygen, protons and electrons. While most of the high - energy electrons derived from water are utilised by the cyanobacterial cells for their own needs, scientists at the University of Maryland BioMET laboratories found that a fraction of these electrons are donated to the external environment.