E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net. ScienceDaily, 27 February 2020. Content on this website is for information only. Waseda University. Some of her collaborators managed to isolate and alter nitrogenase to use the most oxidized form of carbon, carbon dioxide, as its starting material and produce the most reduced form of carbon — methane. "To recycle carbon dioxide into methane, an established industrial method involves the reaction of hydrogen and carbon dioxide using a ruthenium-based catalyst at … Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
"New method converts carbon dioxide to methane at low temperatures." Kensei Yamada, Shuhei Ogo, Ryota Yamano, Takuma Higo, Yasushi Sekine. Harwood said her team is now investigating whether they can tweak the enzyme to improve its efficiency in reducing carbon dioxide, as well as looking for other useful chemicals they could make.
. “We’re really interested in the enzyme nitrogenase because it does a phenomenally difficult reaction,” she said. "To recycle carbon dioxide into methane, an established industrial method involves the reaction of hydrogen and carbon dioxide using a ruthenium-based catalyst at temperatures of 300 to 400 degrees Celsius, but this method limited how much and when methane could be produced since it requires such high temperature," Sekine says. Scientists have engineered a bacterium that can take carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into fuel in a single enzymatic step. In this newly-developed method reported in Chemistry Letters, carbon dioxide can be converted into methane more efficiently and quickly in the 100 degrees Celsius range. However, the new nitrogenase isn’t anywhere near as efficient at producing methane from carbon dioxide as it is at making ammonia from nitrogen gas. In its natural state, the bacterium absorbs sunlight to produce ATP, so light helped generate the energy to power the enzyme in the modified cells. A new method developed by a team of Waseda University scientists led by Professor Yasushi Sekine may contribute to reducing the use of fossil fuels and help prevent global warming in the long-run. (2020, February 27). The ratio of mcrA/pmoA genes correlated with methane emission from ambient and FACE paddy plots at the PI stage. However, they use different starting materials, like acetate. Lessner studies a class of bacteria called methanogens that naturally produce methane. Get the latest science news with ScienceDaily's free email newsletters, updated daily and weekly. Scientists have engineered a bacterium that can take carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into fuel in a single enzymatic step. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners. Holiday Sale: Save 25%, If scaled up, batches of bacteria could convert CO2 emissions into fuel, in a single step. With this novel method, methane could be produced from carbon dioxide collected from the atmosphere, possibly enabling an unlimited amount of methane production by recycling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere released from factories into valuable energy resources. "New method converts carbon dioxide to methane at low temperatures." It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice. Have any problems using the site? Click here for the original story. These engineered bacteria could guide scientists toward better carbon-neutral biofuels. ScienceDaily shares links with sites in the. Subscribers get more award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology. Daniel Lessner, an associate professor in the department of biological sciences at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, who was not involved in the study, said the findings chalk out a clearer pathway to produce methane, the major component of natural gas, from living organisms. Discover world-changing science. “The process that’s naturally occurring is still more efficient, but because of the simplicity of this engineered organism, it would make it easier to manipulate the process,” Lessner said. ScienceDaily. “It’s been sort of recently appreciated that this enzyme is kind of promiscuous and can do other reactions, as well, only not as efficiently,” Harwood said. On the other hand, the new engineered nitrogenase in R. palustris converts carbon dioxide into methane on its own in a single step, simplifying the process. The conversion of carbon dioxide to valuable chemicals such as methane has drawn great attention for use in supporting carbon capture and utilization. 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Rex Had Huge Growth Spurts, but Other Dinos Grew Slow and Steady, Largest Aggregation of Fishes in Abyssal Deep Sea, Very Hungry and Angry, Caterpillars Head-Butt to Get What They Want, The Secret Social Lives of Giant Poisonous Rats, Truffle Munching Wallabies Shed New Light on Forest Conservation, Geoscientists Discover Ancestral Puebloans Survived from Ice Melt in New Mexico Lava Tubes, Large Predatory Fish Thrive on WWII Shipwrecks Off North Carolina Coast. Without the enzyme, the nitrogen reduction reaction has a huge energy barrier and rarely occurs on its own. Waseda University. Methane has what scientists would describe as super radiation-trapping abilities. “What you need then is not just one microorganism but multiple microorganisms.”. For instance, some plants in Germany have already been launched based on the Power to Gas concept, which allows energy from electricity to be stored and transported in the form of compressed gas. ScienceDaily. Financial support for ScienceDaily comes from advertisements and referral programs, where indicated. The process draws on sunlight to produce methane and hydrogen inside the bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris, in essence reversing combustion.
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