Image Credit: Xi Chen/Columbia University
A new means of generating electricity, one that utilizes bacteria to harness the energy of evaporating water, has been created by researchers from the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
The method could potentially be used to capture the energy released by ponds, harbors, and other bodies of water when the Sun warms them (causing evaporation), according to the researchers.
The newly created prototype generators work by harnessing the movement of a sheet of rubber that’s coated on one side with bacterial spores. As the sheet dries out, it bends, and as the humidity rises, it straightens out — the energy of these movements is then captured and used to drive a generator.
A soil bacterium called Bacillus subtilis wrinkles as it dries out like a grape becoming a raisin, forming a tough, dormant spore. Unlike raisins, which cannot re-form into grapes, spores can take on water and almost immediately restore themselves to their original shape.
Simply increasing the humidity from that of a dry, sunny day to a humid, misty one enabled the flexible, spore-coated plank to generate 1000 times as much force as human muscle, and at least 10 times as much as other materials engineers currently use to build actuators.
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