The team for the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute in Melbourne, Australia, have produced an enzyme that captures hydrogen from the atmosphere to create an electrical current.
The researchers created the enzyme from common soil bacterium. It is able to use the low amounts of hydrogen present in the atmosphere, opening the way to create devices that literally make energy from thin air.
"We've known for some time that bacteria can use the trace hydrogen in the air as a source of energy to help them grow and survive, including in Antarctic soils, volcanic craters and the deep ocean," said Professor Chris Greening, "but we didn't know how they did this, until now."
Recent work by the team has shown that many bacteria use hydrogen from the atmosphere as an energy source in nutrient-poor environments.
The researchers extracted the enzyme responsible for using atmospheric hydrogen from a bacterium called Mycobacterium...