Bacteria have always gotten a bad rap. But we should be thankful for one especially talented microbe, Geobacter, which has tiny hairlike extensions called pili that it uses to generate electricity from mud and wastewater. Professor Derek Lovley and his team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have engineered a strain of Geobacter that's eight times as efficient as other strains at producing power. The next step: creating Geobacter-based fuel cells that can generate cheap, clean electricity.
We have found that dissimilatory metal-reducing microorganisms, such as Geobacter and Rhodoferax species, have the novel ability to directly transfer electrons to the surface of electrodes. This had led to the construction of microbial fuel cells that are superior to previously described microbial fuel cells in that: 1) they are much more efficient; 2) they do not require the addition of the toxic electron shuttling mediator compounds employed in previously described microbial fuel cells; 3) they have remarkable long-term stability; and 4) it is possible to harvest electricity from many types of waste organic matter or renewable biomass. Immediate application of these microbial fuel cells will be for powering electronic monitoring devices in remote locations, such as the bottom of the ocean. However, many other applications are possible. Current research is focusing on elucidating the mechanisms of electron transfer between the microorganisms and the electrode in order to design better electrodes or genetically engineer better microbes for higher rates of electricity production.
[Sediment Battery Preparation | .pdf (177 KB)]
It's Evolutionary: Selective Pressure Yields Microbe Strain Capable of Enhanced Electricity ProductionAdaptive evolution yielded a strain of Geobacter with increased capacity for power production in microbial fuel cells. In addition to the practical benefit for microbial fuel cell applications this strain is providing basic insights into the mechanisms for long-range electron transfer through anode biofilms. (UMass Press Release)
Reference
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Selection of a variant of Geobacter sulfurreducens with enhanced capacity for current production in microbial fuel cells.
Biosens Bioelectron 24(12):3498-3503.
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Nevin, K.P., B.C. Kim, R.H. Glaven, J.P. Johnson, T.L. Woodard, B.A. Methé, R.J. DiDonato, S.F. Covalla, A.E. Franks, A. Liu, and D.R. Lovley. 2009.
Anode biofilm transcriptomics reveals outer surface components essential for high density current production in Geobacter sulfurreducens fuel cells.
PLoS ONE 4(5):e5628.
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Richter, H., K.P. Nevin, H. Jia, D.A. Lowy, D.R. Lovley and L.M. Tender. 2009.
Cyclic voltammetry of biofilms of wild type and mutant Geobacter sulfurreducens on fuel cell anodes indicates possible roles of OmcB, OmcZ, type IV pili, and protons in extracellular electron transfer.
Energy Environ Sci 2:506-516.
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Yi, H., K.P. Nevin, B.C. Kim, A.E. Franks, A. Klimes, L.M. Tender, and D.R. Lovley. 2009.
Selection of a variant of Geobacter sulfurreducens with enhanced capacity for current production in microbial fuel cells.
Biosens Bioelectron 24(12):3498-3503.
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Lovley, D.R. 2009.
Future shock from the microbe electric (in Crystal Ball).
Microbial Biotechnology(2):128-156.
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Strycharz, S.M., T.L. Woodard, J.P. Johnson, K.P. Nevin, R.A. Sanford, F.E. Löffler, and D.R. Lovley. 2008.
Graphite electrode as a sole electron donor for reductive dechlorination of tetrachlorethene by Geobacter lovleyi.
Appl Environ Microbiol 74(19):5943-5947.
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Izallalen, M., R. Mahadevan, A. Burgard, B. Postier, R. DiDonato, J. Sun, C.H. Schilling, and D.R. Lovley. 2008.
Geobacter sulfurreducens strain engineered for increased rates of respiration.
Metab Eng 10(5):267-275.
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Nevin, K.P., H. Richter, S.F. Covalla, J.P. Johnson, T.L. Woodard, A.L. Orloff, H. Jia, M. Zhang, and D.R. Lovley. 2008.
Power output and columbic efficiencies from biofilms of Geobacter sulfurreducens comparable to mixed community microbial fuel cells..
Environ Microbiol 10(10):2505-2514.
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Kim, B.-C. , B.L. Postier, R.J. DiDonato, S.K. Chaudhuri, K.P. Nevin, and D.R. Lovley. 2008.
Insights into genes involved in electricity generation in Geobacter sulfurreducens via whole genome microarray analysis of the OmcF-deficient mutant.
Bioelectrochemistry 73(1):70-75.
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Lovley, D.R. 2008.
Extracellular electron transfer: wires, capacitors, iron lungs, and more.
Geobiology 6(3):225-231.
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Lovley, D.R., and K.P. Nevin. 2008.
Chapter 23: Electricity production with electricigens.
In J. Wall et al. (ed.), Bioenergy. ASM Press, Washington, DC. pp. 295-306.
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Holmes, D.E., T. Mester, R.A. O'Neil, L.A. Perpetua, M.J. Larrahondo, R. Glaven, M.L. Sharma, J.E. Ward, K.P. Nevin, and D.R. Lovley. 2008.
Genes for two multicopper proteins required for Fe(III) oxide reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens have different expression patterns both in the subsurface and on energy-harvesting electrodes.
Microbiology(154):1422-1435.
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Richter, H., K. McCarthy, K.P. Nevin, J.P. Johnson, V.M. Rotello, and D.R. Lovley. 2008.
Electricity generation by Geobacter sulfurreducens attached to gold electrodes.
Langmuir 24(8):4376-4379.
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Lanthier, M., K.B. Gregory, and D.R. Lovley. 2008.
Growth with high planktonic biomass in Shewanella oneidensis fuel cells.
FEMS Microbiol Lett 278(1):29-35.
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Richter, H., M. Lanthier, K.P. Nevin, and D.R. Lovley. 2007.
Lack of electricity production by Pelobacter carbinolicus indicates that the capacity for Fe(III) oxide reduction does not necessarily confer electron transfer ability to fuel cell anodes.
Appl Environ Microbiol 73(16):5347-5353.
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Holmes, D.E., K.P. Nevin, T.L. Woodard, A.D. Peacock, and D.R. Lovley. 2007.
Prolixibacter bellariivorans gen. nov., sp. nov., a sugar-fermenting, psychrotolerant anaerobe of the phylum Bacteroidetes, isolated from a marine-sediment fuel cell.
Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 57(Pt 4):701-707.
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Reguera, G., K.P. Nevin, J.S. Nicoll, S.F. Covalla, T.L. Woodard, and D.R. Lovley. 2006.
Biofilm and nanowire production leads to increased current in Geobacter sulfurreducens fuel cells.
Appl Environ Microbiol 72(11):7345-7348.
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Holmes, D.E., S.K. Chaudhuri, K.P. Nevin, T. Mehta, B.A. Methé, A. Liu, J.E. Ward, T.L. Woodard, J. Webster, and D.R. Lovley. 2006.
Microarray and genetic analysis of electron transfer electrodes in Geobacter sulfurreducens.
Environ Microbiol 8(10):1805-1815.
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Lovley, D.R. 2006.
Microbial energizers: Fuel cells that keep on going.
Microbe 1(7):323-329.
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Lovley, D.R. 2006.
Taming electricigens: How electricity-generating microbes can keep going, and going — faster.
The Scientist 7(20):46.
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Lovley, D.R. 2006.
Bug juice: Harvesting electricity with microorganisms.
Nature Reviews Microbiology 4(7):497-508.
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Lovley, D.R. 2006.
Microbial fuel cells: Novel microbial physiologies and engineering approaches.
Current Opinion in Biotechnology 17(3):327-332.
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Lowy, D.A., L.M. Tender, J.G. Zeikus, D.H. Park, and D.R. Lovley. 2006.
Harvesting energy from the marine sediment-water interface II: Kinetic activity of anode materials.
Biosens Bioelectron 21(11):2058-2063.
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Gregory, K.B., and D.R. Lovley 2005.
Remediation and recovery of uranium from contaminated subsurface environments with electrodes.
Environ Sci Technol 39(22):8943-8947.
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Holmes, D.E., K.P. Nevin, R.A. O'Neil, J.E. Ward, L.A. Adams, T.L. Woodard, H.A. Vrionis, and D.R. Lovley. 2005.
Potential for quantifying expression of the Geobacteraceae citrate synthase gene to assess the activity of Geobacteraceae in the subsurface and on current-harvesting electrodes.
Appl Environ Microbiol 71(11):6870-6877.
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Bond, D.R., and D.R. Lovley. 2005.
Evidence for involvement of an electron shuttle in electricity generation by Geothrix fermentans.
Appl Environ Microbiol 71(4):2186-2189.
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Holmes, D.E., D.R. Bond, R.A. O'Neil, C.E. Reimers, L.R. Tender, and D.R. Lovley. 2004.
Microbial communities associated with electrodes harvesting electricity from a variety of aquatic sediments.
Microb Ecol 48(2):178-190.
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Holmes, D.E., J.S. Nicoll, D.R. Bond, and D.R. Lovley. 2004.
Potential role of a novel psychrotolerant member of the family Geobacteraceae, Geopsychrobacter electrodiphilus gen. nov., sp. nov., in electricity production by a marine sediment fuel cell.
Appl Environ Microbiol 70(10):6023-6030.
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Holmes, D.E., D.R. Bond, and D.R. Lovley. 2004.
Electron transfer by Desulfobulbus propionicus to Fe(III) and graphite electrodes.
Appl Environ Microbiol 70(2):1234-1237.
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Gregory, K.B., D.R. Bond, and D.R. Lovley. 2004.
Graphite electrodes as electron donors for anaerobic respiration.
Environ Microbiol 6(6):596-604.
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Bond, D.R., and D.R. Lovley. 2003.
Electricity production by Geobacter sulfurreducens attached to electrodes.
Appl Environ Microbiol 69(3):1548-1555.
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Chaudhuri, S.K., and D.R. Lovley. 2003.
Electricity generation by direct oxidation of glucose in mediatorless microbial fuel cells.
Nature Biotechnology 21(10):1229-1232.
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Bond, D.R., D.E. Holmes, L.M. Tender, and D.R. Lovley. 2002.
Electrode-reducing microorganisms that harvest energy from marine sediments. .
Science 295(5554):483-485.
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Tender, L.M., C.E. Reimers, H.A. Stecher, D.E. Holmes, D.R. Bond, D.A. Lowy, K. Pilobello, S.J. Fertig, and D.R. Lovley. 2002.
Harnessing microbially generated power on the seafloor.
Nat Biotechnol 20(8):821-825.
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2007-01-10: Bug Powered Batteries (PBS Science Investigators)
2004-04-22: Mud Is Making Waves - Electrical Ones (Chronicle, WCVB-TV5)
2003-12-16: Bacterial Batteries (QuickTime) (ScienCentral.com)
2003-12-16: Bacterial Batteries (Real Media) (ScienCentral.com)
2007-06-01: Microbes Power Up (MicrobeWorld Radio)
2005-06-22: Radio spot on Geobacter, electricity production, and nanowires (WFCR FM-88.5)
2004-05-20: Geobacter: Creating Electricity From Mud (Pulse of the Planet)
2004-03-14: Electricity from Mud (WTOP News on Engineering)
2003-10-08: Bacterial Batteries (Science Update)
2009-12-24: New microbe strain generates more power (WE&T Research Notes)
2009-11-13: The 50 best inventions of 2009 - The electric microbe (Time)
2009-09-14: Bacterial batteries (Birmingham Science News Examiner)
2009-09-08: Bacteria can help convert waste to power (Pakistan Ki Awaz)
2009-09-07: Electric germs (Scenta)
2009-09-07: Bacteria can help convert waste to power (Samay Live)
Read article at Time.com