Don Wood – MessageToEagle.com – What sounds like magic is simply innovative scientific achievement. Researchers have developed an ingenious device that creates electricity out of thin air. This new green technology could have significant implications for the future of renewable energy, climate change and in the future of medicine.
The device called Air-gen was developed by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It’s basically a. air-powered generator, with electrically conductive protein nanowires produced by the microbe Geobacter.
Graphic image of a thin film of protein nanowires generating electricity from atmospheric humidity. Credit: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Air-gen uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in the air. The Air-gen connects electrodes to the protein nanowires in such a way that electrical current is generated from the water vapor naturally present in the atmosphere.
“We are literally making electricity out of thin air,”electrical engineer Jun Yao and microbiologist Derek Lovley at UMass Amhers said.
“The Air-gen generates clean energy 24/7.” Lovely, who has advanced sustainable biology-based electronic materials over three decades, adds, “It’s the most amazing and exciting application of protein nanowires yet.”
This new technology is non-polluting, renewable and low-cost. It can generate power even in areas with extremely low humidity such as the Sahara Desert.
It has significant advantages over other forms of renewable energy including solar and wind, microbiologist Derek Lovley at UMass Amherst said, because unlike these other renewable energy sources, the Air-gen does not require sunlight or wind, and “it even works indoors.”
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The Air-gen device requires only a thin film of protein nanowires less than 10 microns thick, the researchers explain. The bottom of the film rests on an electrode, while a smaller electrode that covers only part of the nanowire film sits on top.
The film adsorbs water vapor from the atmosphere. A combination of the electrical conductivity and surface chemistry of the protein nanowires, coupled with the fine pores between the nanowires within the film, establishes the conditions that generate an electrical current between the two electrodes.
The researchers say that the current generation of Air-gen devices are able to power small electronics, and they expect to bring the invention to commercial scale soon.
Written by Don Wood – MessageToEagle.com Staff