Bacteria rotate the microrotors

Bacteria can power tiny "wind turbines" and supply energy

Evgenia Efimova, Vesti

Illustration by Amin Doostmohammadi

Today, a wind power plant is already an established alternative to other energy sources, but this solution also has its drawbacks. So, many believe that they are too bulky and unsafe for the environment, others blame wind turbines for causing local climate warming.

But a new type of wind farm proposed by researchers from Oxford University (Scientists simulate tiny bacteria-powered ‘windfarm’ – VM) is unlikely to face such criticism, at least in terms of its size.

Scientists claim that computer modeling has shown the possibility of creating microscopic "wind farms" powered by bacteria. Such a power supply will be weak, but it will work stably.

Let's explain. If you look at a drop of water from a pond with a powerful microscope, you can see randomly floating bacteria and protozoa. At first glance, the use of these microorganisms as a food source seems completely absurd.

But, according to scientists, biologically controlled power plants may one day become microscopic engines for tiny artificial devices.

One of the authors of the work, Dr. Tyler Shendruk, says: "Many of today's energy problems affect gigawatt capacity, but there are some devices that consume microscopic power. One possible way to generate a small amount of energy for micromachines may be to collect energy directly from biological systems, for example, suspensions of bacteria."

A dense bacterial suspension is a typical example of active fluids that act spontaneously. During swimming, the bacterium is able to control disorganized living streams, but they are usually too disordered to extract any useful energy from it.

Scientists conducted an experiment: they immersed a grid of 64 symmetrical micromotors in an active liquid and found that bacteria spontaneously organize their movement in such a way that neighboring rotors begin to spin in opposite directions. And this is a simple structural organization, resembling a wind turbine.

"When we conducted a simulation with a single rotor in a turbulent bacterial environment, it rotated in random directions," says Shendryuk. "But when we put a lot of rotors in a living liquid, the neighboring rotors suddenly lined up in the right structure and rotated in opposite directions."

Another author of the work, Dr. Amin Doostmohammadi (Amin Doostmohammadi) notes: "The ability to get even a small amount of energy from biological systems is very significant, since they do not need input power and use internal biochemical processes to move around."

According to him, the calculations of scientists show that the flow created by bacteria can generate constant mechanical energy due to the rotation of the array of micro-rotors.

"Nature is brilliant at creating tiny engines. We need to understand how to use such constructions to our advantage," says the lead author of the study, Professor Julia Yeomans.

The study was published in the scientific publication Science Advances (Thampi et al., Active micromachines: Microfluidics powered by mesoscale turbulence).

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  11.07.2016