Sustainable energy from deep ocean cold seeps

Nielsen, Mark E.; Reimers, Clare E.; White, Helen K.; Sharma, Sunil; Girguis, Peter R.

doi:10.1039/b811899j

Cited by 72 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Considering the metabolic flexibility of Shewanella (209), this group is a common model in laboratory studies to examine unusual metabolic pathways. For example, Shewanella is often a target for biotechnological applications such as sedimentary biobatteries or microbial fuel cells (412). Furthermore, investigations on the potential of Shewanella to use "nanowires" in facilitating metabolism under energy-limiting conditions (198) make this a model organism for exploring the potential for marine sediments to contain natural electrical microbial metabolic networks (411).…”

Section: Cultivated Prokaryotes From the Dark Oceanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Ecology of the Dark Ocean above, at, and below the Seafloor

Orcutt

Sylvan

Knab

et al. 2011

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev

583

499

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SUMMARY The majority of life on Earth—notably, microbial life—occurs in places that do not receive sunlight, with the habitats of the oceans being the largest of these reservoirs. Sunlight penetrates only a few tens to hundreds of meters into the ocean, resulting in large-scale microbial ecosystems that function in the dark. Our knowledge of microbial processes in the dark ocean—the aphotic pelagic ocean, sediments, oceanic crust, hydrothermal vents, etc.—has increased substantially in recent decades. Studies that try to decipher the activity of microorganisms in the dark ocean, where we cannot easily observe them, are yielding paradigm-shifting discoveries that are fundamentally changing our understanding of the role of the dark ocean in the global Earth system and its biogeochemical cycles. New generations of researchers and experimental tools have emerged, in the last decade in particular, owing to dedicated research programs to explore the dark ocean biosphere. This review focuses on our current understanding of microbiology in the dark ocean, outlining salient features of various habitats and discussing known and still unexplored types of microbial metabolism and their consequences in global biogeochemical cycling. We also focus on patterns of microbial diversity in the dark ocean and on processes and communities that are characteristic of the different habitats.

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Section: Cultivated Prokaryotes From the Dark Oceanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Ecology of the Dark Ocean above, at, and below the Seafloor

Orcutt

Sylvan

Knab

et al. 2011

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev

583

499

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This CEH method was selected because it appeared to provide optimal performance for SMFC systems based on previous studies for similar types of systems and sediments. [15][16][17] These systems are subsequently referred to as CEH-MFCs because they operated at an approximately constant cell potential with energy harvested continuously rather than intermittently.…”

Section: H3110mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several energy harvesting strategies have emerged in literature. Two predominant strategies involve either a potentiostatic operation [12][13][14][15][16][17] or a capacitor charging operation. 5,7,[18][19][20][21] In SMFC applications, the cell potential -the difference between cathode and anode potentials-can be kept constant manually adjusting the external load or automatically by using electronic feedback control.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Energy Harvesting Strategies on Performance and Microbial Community for Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells

Hsu

Mohamed

et al. 2017

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are being developed as potential energy sources where remote sensing and monitoring would be useful. Several energy harvesting techniques for SMFCs have emerged, but effects of these different strategies on startup, performance, and microbial community are not well understood. We investigated these effects by comparing a continuous energy harvesting (CEH) strategy with an intermittent energy harvesting (IEH) strategy. During startup, IEH systems immediately produced higher power and were cathode limited. CEH systems exhibited a gradual power increase and were anode-limited during startup. Both system types produced similar amounts of steady-state power, 1.5 mW ft −2 (16 mW m −2 ) when optimized. However, an IEH system using unoptimized settings could not be subsequently switched to optimal settings and produce expected power levels. The choice of energy harvester did not appear to significantly affect steady-state community structure. Anodes were dominated by γ-and δ-proteobacteria while α-and γ-proteobacteria dominated cathodes. The results suggest performance and community structure are unaffected by energy harvesting strategy, but that startup conditions influence the initial amount of harvested energy and steady-state performance, suggesting future investigations into optimizing startup of these systems are critical for rapidly generating maximum power. Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are currently being explored as persistent energy sources for remote sensors and communications in various environments. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] SMFCs are able to generate electrical current from chemical redox gradients at the sediment-water interface. Specifically, they utilize biologically catalyzed chemical reactions to oxidize organic carbon at the anode in the sediment. [9][10][11] This is typically coupled with oxygen reduction in the water column at a cathode. By putting an electronic load between the anode and cathode, useful energy can be derived to power different payloads.In order to maximize the power output of SMFCs, it is presumed that both microbial community and the energy harvesting systems need to be performing optimally. Several energy harvesting strategies have emerged in literature. Two predominant strategies involve either a potentiostatic operation 12-17 or a capacitor charging operation. 5,7,[18][19][20][21] In SMFC applications, the cell potential -the difference between cathode and anode potentials-can be kept constant manually adjusting the external load or automatically by using electronic feedback control. This potentiostatic method may cause potential oscillations as the correct external load is determined by the feedback control circuit, but generally these can be avoided because the current response of the MFC to load change is quite slow in comparison. The net effect here is that the SMFC cell potentials are considered constant and current is continuously flowing in one direction. Thus, we call this type of strategy "continuous energy harvesting" (CE...

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“…These have often occupied more than half the volume of the implantable device [9] and consequently alternative means of power sources that may offer higher energy densities or lifetimes have been considered. Energy harvesters based on vibration [10,11], thermal gradients [12,13] and exogeneous chemicals [14,15] have therefore emerged as the most promising candidates. In this respect, the use of glucose and dissolved oxygen (DO) may hold the best promise of a long term energy supply for electronic implants due to their relative abundance in all tissues and their limited-dependency to ambient factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thin film nanoporous electrodes for the selective catalysis of oxygen in abiotically catalysed micro glucose fuel cells

et al. 2016

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Selective reduction of oxygen is an important property of fuel cells designed to operate in a mixed fuel environment containing both oxidizing and reducing reactants. This would be of particular importance in the design of a long lasting energy supply unit powering implantable microsystems and running from exogeneous chemicals that is abundant in the body (such as glucose and oxygen). This paper presents the development of a nanoporous electrode for oxygen reduction in the presence of glucose. The electrode was fabricated by e-beam deposition of palladium thin films on porous ceramic aluminium oxide (AAO) substrates with a pore size of 100 and 200 nm respectively. The porous nature of the electrodes improved the catalytic properties by increasing the real surface area close to 100 times the geometric surface area. At a dissolved physiological oxygen (DO) concentration of 2 ppm, the maximum exchange current density was found to be 2.9×10 −3 ± 0.5×10 −3 µA cm −2 whereas the potential reduction due to the addition of 5 mM glucose was about 20.6 ± 16.1 mV. The Tafel slopes were measured to be about 60 mV per decade. After running for 21 hours in a physiological saline solution with 2 ppm DO and 3 mM glu- cose, the reduction in the electrode operational potential was -0.13 mV h −1 under a load current density of 4.4 µA cm −2 . These results suggest that nanoporous AAO cathodes coated with palladium offers a reasonable catalytic performance with a good selectivity towards oxygen in the presence of glucose.

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Sustainable energy from deep ocean cold seeps

Cited by 72 publications

References 43 publications

Microbial Ecology of the Dark Ocean above, at, and below the Seafloor

Microbial Ecology of the Dark Ocean above, at, and below the Seafloor

The Influence of Energy Harvesting Strategies on Performance and Microbial Community for Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells

Thin film nanoporous electrodes for the selective catalysis of oxygen in abiotically catalysed micro glucose fuel cells

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