What if planes could be powered with energy generated from sugar-chewing bacteria? It sounds like an unusual idea, but this is an alternative raised by researchers, who have shown that these microorganisms can be used to generate green fuel.

This would be possible through the bacterium streptomyces, which creates an explosive molecule when it eats sugar and thus produces clean energy. "The recipe already exists in nature. As bacteria eat sugar or amino acids, they break them down and convert them into building blocks for carbon-carbon bonds," Pablo Cruz-Morales, a microbiologist at the Technical University of Denmark, told Euro News.

The discovery opens up another possibility for the aviation industry to give up fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which increase the carbon footprint of air travel and generate greenhouse gases. "If we can make this fuel with biology, there are no excuses to do it with oil," Cruz-Morales said.

Currently, aviation is estimated to accounted for about 2% of the world's global carbon emissions. In addition to the CO2 pollutant, flights also generate nitrogen oxides (NOx), water vapor, and other harmful and aggravating particles from global warming. For experts, scientific advances in the use of bacteria are a first step, but there are other obstacles, such as fossil fuel subsidies.

"This is something that is not only related to technology, but to the geopolitical and sociopolitical constitution of the planet at this time," he said. Around the world, there are already other alternative solutions that include used cooking oil, agricultural waste and household waste.

Source: Um só Planeta