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Purple bacteria can generate hydrogen energy from organic waste. Researchers have found a new way to reduce carbon emissions and turn sewage waste into green generators.
Organic compounds typically found in industrial wastewater and household sewage are known as a rich source of energy, bioplasts as well as proteins for animal feed. But during the process of removing contaminants from wastewater, treatment plants discard them. Now researchers show a new environmentally-friendly and cost-effective way.
Their method, first time in a history, uses purple bacteria and electric current to recover carbon from any type of organic materials. Their findings were published in Energy Research.
People usually think that photosynthesis is associated with the color green. But its pigments come in all sorts of colors. Cue purple phototrophic bacteria capture energy from sunlight through different pigments like red, brown, orange as well as purple. However, the versatility of their metabolism interests scientists.
Dr. Daniel Puyol and the team at King Juan Carlos University, Spain, in their study, found that purple bacteria can use electrons from the cathode produce hydrogen via photosynthesis.
“Recordings from our bioelectrochemical system showed a clear interaction between the purple bacteria and the electrodes: negative polarization of the electrode caused a detectable consumption of electrons, associated with a reduction in carbon dioxide production,” explains co-author Professor Abraham Esteve-Núñez from the University of Alcalá, Spain.
The authors note that capturing CO2 can not only be used to reduce the carbon emissions but also for purifying biogas to use as fuel.
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