Growth of electroautotrophic microorganisms using hydrovoltaic energy through natural water evaporation

It has been previously shown that devices based on microbial biofilms can be used to generate hydrovoltaic energy from water evaporation. However, the potential of hydrovoltaic energy as an energy source for microbial growth has remained unexplored. Here, we show that the electroautotrophic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris can use evaporation-induced hydrovoltaic electrons for growth in biofilms, with a strong reliance on carbon fixation coupled with nitrate reduction. We obtained similar results with two other electroautotrophic bacterial species. Although the energy conversion efficiency for microbial growth based on hydrovoltaic energy is low compared to other processes such as photosynthesis, we hypothesize that hydrovoltaic energy may potentially contribute to microbial survival and growth in energy-limited environments, given the ubiquity of microbial biofilms and water evaporation conditions.

Identifier
Source https://data.blue-cloud.org/search-details?step=~0120050AE6C6FCB1E70E0E523D901F8BF1DCBB8B80C
Metadata Access https://data.blue-cloud.org/api/collections/0050AE6C6FCB1E70E0E523D901F8BF1DCBB8B80C
Provenance
Instrument Illumina Genome Analyzer; ILLUMINA
Publisher Blue-Cloud Data Discovery & Access service; ELIXIR-ENA
Publication Year 2025
OpenAccess true
Contact blue-cloud-support(at)maris.nl
Representation
Discipline Marine Science
Temporal Point 2023-03-17T00:00:00Z