Protecting nitrogen-fixing bacteria from heat and humidity
CategoriesSustainable News

Protecting nitrogen-fixing bacteria from heat and humidity

Spotted: At present, global food security relies on the use of nitrogen fertilisers, but their production and use are responsible for around five per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, along with pollution and soil depletion. One possible solution is to use bacteria that convert nitrogen gas to ammonia to provide the nutrients that plants need and regenerate the soil. However, these bacteria are sensitive to heat and humidity, so it’s difficult to scale up their production and use.

Now, researchers at MIT, led by Ariel Furst, the Paul M. Cook Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, may have a solution that could remove this limitation. They have devised a metal-organic coating that protects bacterial cells from damage without affecting their growth or function. The coating contains food-safe metal and polyphenol compounds, and can self-assemble into a protective shell.

In their study, the researchers created and tested 12 different coatings. They encapsulated a nitrogen-fixing bacterium that also protects plants against pests. All of the coatings protected the bacteria from high temperatures and humidity and improved the seed germination rate by 150 per cent compared to seeds treated with uncoated microbes.

The research received funding from a number of sources, including the Army Research Office and a National Institutes of Health New Innovator Award. Furst has also launched a company called Seia Bio to scale up and commercialise the coated bacteria.

Regenerative agriculture is gaining steam, as farmers realise that it is not only more sustainable but also less costly. Recent innovations in regenerative agriculture spotted by Springwise include a company rejuvenating exhausted soils using bacteria and solar-powered trackers that help farmers efficiently manage herd location.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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Sustainable soil-boosting bacteria – Springwise
CategoriesSustainable News

Sustainable soil-boosting bacteria – Springwise

Spotted: In our ever-developing world, demand for raw materials surges, surpassing our supply. Until now, we have relied on increased mining and agrochemicals to try and balance supply with demand. However, this has come at the expense of our resources, environment, health, and the planet’s biodiversity. 

Using a technology that’s been developing for over 35 years, Slovakian startup Ekolive is rewriting the playbook. The company has found a way to ecologically process minerals, revive mining waste, and rejuvenate contaminated or exhausted soils using microorganisms. 

The company’s eco-friendly solution to the mineral supply-demand challenge harnesses the power of bacteria to remove impurities. This method enhances raw material value, accessibility, and usability of unprocessed, primary materials and secondary minerals. Ekolive’s technology can also be applied to hazardous materials like mining waste, giving newfound value to materials previously deemed useless. 

But that’s not all: Ekolive discovered its technology also had amazing effects on agriculture. Managing Director Darina Štyriaková explains that the specially selected mix of minerals and microorganisms “regenerates” contaminated soils, optimises the structure of exhausted soils, and “strengthens plants in different ways.” Štyriaková adds that these results are “not created by mixing chemicals” but “by a replication of natural weathering and soil formation recipe.” 

Founded in 2018, Ekolive is now focusing on commercialisation after successful validations. The company currently has five bioleaching production sites in the EU, with three more in the pipeline outside of Europe. 

Springwise has previously spotted other innovations that process soil contaminants, from soil-cleaning microbes to pre and probiotics that improve soil health and crop resilience.

Written By: Georgia King

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Oil-eating bacteria produce ‘gold’ hydrogen
CategoriesSustainable News

Oil-eating bacteria produce ‘gold’ hydrogen

Spotted: Hydrogen has been touted as a potential fuel for the future. Hydrogen is light, storable, energy-dense, and produces no direct emissions of pollutants or greenhouse gases. However, one major stumbling block is that most hydrogen is currently produced from fossil fuel sources, with around 6 per cent of global natural gas going to hydrogen production in 2019. As a result, production of hydrogen is responsible for CO2 emissions equivalent to that of the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined.

To find a ‘green’ source of hydrogen production, US startup Cemvita Factory is using special microbes to generate hydrogen from depleted and abandoned oil and gas wells. The company’s process uses naturally occurring micro-organisms that consume the carbon in the gas and oil and release hydrogen – generating up to 20-50 tonnes of what it terms ‘gold’ hydrogen per field. Cemvita defines gold hydrogen as “the biological production of hydrogen in the subsurface through the consumption of trapped or abandoned resources”.

Cemvita claims that its researchers have been able to increase the performance of the microbes by six and a half times their natural rate – enough to produce hydrogen at a cost of $1 per kilogramme. This is thought to be a key cost target needed to advance toward commercialisation. In addition, by producing the gold hydrogen from depleted oil reservoirs that are ready for abandonment, the life of wells is significantly extended – saving money.

Traditional methods of producing hydrogen cleanly include electrolysis powered by renewable sources like wind, solar, or hydro. But Cemvita is confident that its process could prove equally sustainable. “In a very short time frame, we moved our microbes from the lab to the field. The hydrogen production in this trial exceeded our expectations,” said Zach Broussard, Director of Gold H2 at Cemvita.

The race is on to produce and transport green hydrogen cheaply and at scale. Springwise has seen this in many recent innovations which range from a new way to produce renewable hydrogen fuel using sunlight to repurposing natural gas pipelines to transport hydrogen.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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Extremophile bacteria improve crop yields
CategoriesSustainable News

Extremophile bacteria improve crop yields

Spotted: A large proportion of the world’s arable land is already degraded by the effects of climate change, pollution, and salinisation, and this is set to get worse over time. At the same time, the agricultural industry spends a huge amount of money on fertilisers and other soil treatments. Now, Argentinian startup Puna Bio is developing a novel all-natural solution for improving crop yield using extremophile organisms – microbes evolved to thrive in extreme environments. 

Puna co-founder Elisa Bertini scoured locations including Utah’s Great Salt Lake and South America’s high desert, known in Argentina as La Puna, for organisms that thrive in harsh environments like active volcanoes, saline wetlands, and desert soils. The extremophiles that live in these locations have evolved to live with a low amount of nutrients and to optimise the uptake of available nutrients, such as nitrogen or phosphorus, making them very efficient.

The company found that some extremophiles also contain multiple copies of genes that amplify the microbe’s ability to produce nitrogen and phosphorus or grow well under conditions that non-extremophile microbes cannot handle. This, in turn, means that when these microbes are relocated to other soils, even those that have been heavily depleted of nutrients, they thrive. Puna co-founder and CEO Franco Martínez Levis explains it by saying, “What we found is like what happens when an athlete trains at high altitude.”

However, Levis also added that the company doesn’t just collect and sell on the extremophile microbes. They have developed and patented a method for combining these microbes with seed stock. This means that farmers can buy and plant the treated seeds as normal, but also that the extremophiles will not outcompete the existing microbes already present in the soil.

As global warming picks up pace, the race is on to find ways of improving or maintaining agricultural yields without causing further degradation of the environment. Luckily, innovators are coming up with a number of solutions, including a method for turning batteries into fertiliser and a system that can make sustainable biofertiliser on-site. 

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Email: info@punabio.com

Website: puna.bio

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