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Convert Air into Energy

Education, Environment, Science

Convert Air into Energy

A team of scientists have discovered an enzyme that converts air into energy

The finding, published in the top journal Nature, reveals that this enzyme uses the low amounts of the hydrogen in the atmosphere to create an electrical current. This finding opens the way to create devices that literally make energy from thin air.

The research team, led by Dr Rhys Grinter, Ashleigh Kropp, and Professor Chris Greening from the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute in Melbourne, Australia, produced and analyzed a hydrogen-consuming enzyme from a common soil bacterium. Molecular modelling and simulations were performed by Oxford Biochemistry and Queens College undergraduate Jack Badley and postdoctoral research fellow Dr Ruyu Jiya, under the supervision of Professor Syma Khalid (Professor of Computational Microbiology in the Department of Biochemstry, Oxford). Professor Chris Greening is also an alumnus of the Department of Biochemistry at Oxford.

Many bacteria use hydrogen from the atmosphere as an energy source in nutrient-poor environments. In this Nature paper, the researchers extracted the enzyme responsible for using atmospheric hydrogen from a bacterium called Mycobacterium smegmatis. They showed that this enzyme, called Huc, turns hydrogen gas into an electrical current. The enzyme is extraordinarily efficient and is able to consume hydrogen below atmospheric levels – as little as 0.00005% of the air we breathe.

The researchers used several cutting-edge methods to reveal the molecular blueprint of atmospheric hydrogen oxidation. They used advanced microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine its atomic structure and electrical pathways, pushing boundaries to produce the most resolved enzyme structure reported by this method to date. Electrochemistry was used to demonstrate the purified enzyme creates electricity at minute hydrogen concentrations. Molecular modelling and simulations were used to identify the specific regions of the protein which allow hydrogen gas to enter the active site of the protein where it is transformed, but prevent oxygen getting through.

Huc is a “natural battery” that produces a sustained electrical current from air or added hydrogen. While this research is at an early stage, the discovery of Huc has considerable potential to develop small air-powered devices, for example as an alternative to solar-powered devices.

The bacteria that produce enzymes like Huc are common and can be grown in large quantities, meaning we have access to a sustainable source of the enzyme. Dr. Grinter says that a key objective for future work is to scale up Huc production. “Once we produce Huc in sufficient quantities, the sky is quite literally the limit for using it to produce clean energy.”

Syma Khalid: Jack Badley, an undergraduate student doing a research project in my group used computer simulations to show how the channels to the active site of Huc are too narrow for oxygen to pass through, but wide enough for hydrogen. Extension of Jack’s work by Ruyu Jia predicted mutations that would widen these channels to enable passage of oxygen. It was wonderful for us to work with the remarkably high-quality structure determined by the Monash team, and I think for all of us it really showed the power of doing experimental and simulation work in tandem.

Key UN reports published warn urgent and collective action needed

Broken in the USA, Education, Environment, Science

Key UN reports published warn urgent and collective action needed – as oil firms report astronomical profits

By Damian Carrington Environment editor

The climate crisis has reached a “really bleak moment”, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has said, after a slew of major reports laid bare how close the planet is to catastrophe.

Collective action is needed by the world’s nations more now than at any point since the second world war to avoid climate tipping points, Prof Johan Rockström said, but geopolitical tensions are at a high.

He said the world was coming “very, very close to irreversible changes … time is really running out very, very fast”.

Emissions must fall by about half by 2030 to meet the internationally agreed target of 1.5C of heating but are still rising, the reports showed – at a time when oil giants are making astronomical amounts of money.

On Thursday, Shell and TotalEnergies both doubled their quarterly profits to about $10bn. Oil and gas giants have enjoyed soaring profits as post-Covid demand jumps and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sector is expected to amass $4tn in 2022, strengthening calls for heavy windfall taxes to address the cost of living crisis and fund the clean energy transition.

All three of the key UN agencies have produced damning reports in the last two days. The UN environment agency’s report found there was “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place” and that “woefully inadequate” progress on cutting carbon emissions means the only way to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”.

Current pledges for action by 2030, even if delivered in full, would mean a rise in global heating of about 2.5C, a level that would condemn the world to catastrophic climate breakdown, according to the UN’s climate agency. Only a handful of countries have ramped up their plans in the last year, despite having promised to do so at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last November.

The UN’s meteorological agency reported that all the main heating gases hit record highs in 2021, with an alarming surge in emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Separately, the IEA’s world energy report offered a glimmer of progress, that CO2 from fossil fuels could peak by 2025 as high energy prices push nations towards clean energy, though it warned that it would not be enough to avoid severe climate impacts.

Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said: “It’s a really bleak moment, not only because of the reports showing that emissions are still rising, so we’re not delivering on either the Paris or Glasgow climate agreements, but we also have so much scientific evidence that we are very, very close to irreversible changes – we’re coming closer to tipping points.”

Research by Rockström and colleagues, published in September, found five dangerous climate tipping points may already have been passed due to the global heating caused by humanity to date, including the collapse of Greenland’s ice cap, with another five possible with 1.5C of heating.

“Furthermore, the world is unfortunately in a geopolitically unstable state,” said Rockström. “So when we need collective action at the global level, probably more than ever since the second world war, to keep the planet stable, we have an all-time low in terms of our ability to collectively act together.”

“Time is really running out very, very fast,” he said. “I must say, in my professional life as a climate scientist, this is a low point. The window for 1.5C is shutting as I speak, so it’s really tough.”

His remarks came after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Wednesday that climate action was “falling pitifully short”. “We are headed for a global catastrophe [and] for economy-destroying levels of global heating.”

He added: “Droughts, floods, storms and wildfires are devastating lives and livelihoods across the globe [and] getting worse by the day. We need climate action on all fronts and we need it now.” He said the G20 nations, responsible for 80% of emissions, must lead the way.

Inger Andersen, head of the UN environment program (UNEP), told the Guardian that the energy crisis must be used to speed up delivery of a low-carbon economy: “We are in danger of missing the opportunity and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”

Massive Battery

Education, Environment, Science

How These 24-Ton Bricks Could Fix a Huge Renewable Energy Problem

This startup could solve a core issue with renewable energy. From CNET Zero Energy

Energy Vault’s first large-scale gravity storage system is under construction in China.

Energy Vault

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Imagine a gigantic brick, packed full of compressed dirt. As big as a pickup truck but — at 24 tons — about five times heavier. An elevator powered by solar panels or wind turbines hoists it over 300 feet up the side of a huge building. A trolley stows it inside, but it’s not alone. An automated system lifts and stores hundreds more bricks, like giant Pez candies, as the sun shines and the wind blows.

Now imagine the building’s control system lowering those hundreds of bricks one by one, spinning electrical power generators in the process. They drop down every evening just as demand for power peaks but solar panel output fades away.

This story is part of CNET Zero, a series that chronicles the impact of climate change and explores what’s being done about the problem.

In effect, the brick-filled building is a giant battery that stores energy with gravity instead of chemistry.

Gravity batteries are a potentially important solution to a critical problem with the green energy revolution: making sure electricity is available when we need it, not just during the times when sun and wind supply it.

And it isn’t just an idea. With two sites under construction — one in Rudong, China, just north of Shanghai, and the other in Snyder, Texas, about 250 miles west of Dallas — startup Energy Vault will begin seriously testing the viability of the gravity storage technology. An earlier pilot generated 5 megawatts of power, but these two facilities and expected successors will show whether gravity storage is economical and efficient enough to work at large scale.

Power when the sun goes down

You may think putting solar panels on your roof will help fight climate change, but without some form of energy storage in your home or on the grid, you’ll likely rely on carbon dioxide-spewing gas and coal power plants to run your home’s lights, TV and dishwasher as the sun sets.

Energy Vault tested its technology at a smaller scale in Switzerland, where the 170-person company is headquartered. Its two EVx systems under construction are much bigger. The Chinese system, built for waste management and recycling company China Tianying, is in a 400-foot-tall building and will have an energy storage capacity of 100 megawatt-hours. That’s enough to power 3,400 homes for an entire day, and the system should be complete by June. The Texas system, in a 460-foot-tall (but narrower) building, will provide power company Enel with 36MWh of capacity.

Solar panels and wind turbines now generate power more cheaply than coal and natural gas plants, making them a clear choice in the push to replace fossil fuels. Solar power costs dropped 83% from 2009 to 2023 and wind costs dropped 63% over the same period, according to tracking from investment advisory and asset management firm Lazard. But in many parts of the country, new solar panels often just supply a glut of power during the middle of the day without helping in the evenings.