After repeated experiments, Florida scientists have discovered the first carbon dioxide neutralizing bacteria. The bacterium is called Thiomicrospira crunogena and it is usually found on the bottom of the sea.
Science has been trying to find a solution to carbon dioxide pollution for a long time, but it has been literally impossible to discover a wonder ingredient, so far. In a recent scientific paper published by researchers from the University of Florida, marine biologists suggest carbon dioxide rates can be reduced with the help of a newly found ocean bacterium.
Thiomicrospira crunogena is capable of producing carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme which cleans all organisms of carbon dioxide. The process by which this outcome is achieved is called sequestering, according to scientists’ explanation.
The chemistry process of sequestering presupposes that the deep-sea bacterium’s enzyme, carbonic anhydrase produces in its turn, a chemical reaction between water and carbon dioxide. When the newly formed enzyme interacts with carbon dioxide in other organisms, the latter is turned into bicarbonate.
This is not the only positive aspect that researchers have discovered while conducting their investigation. It appears that the deep-sea bacterium is also highly resistant to those conditions that are considered harmful for most underwater species.
Thiomicrospira crunogena lives on the bottom of the sea or ocean, near hydrothermal vents. These areas have very high temperatures, so scientists think the carbonic anhydrase enzyme is also highly resistant to most industrial conditions. The enzyme can resist high temperatures, so it won’t be a problem for it to adapt to climate change and continue to replace carbon dioxide with bicarbonate.
Carbon dioxide is usually formed through fossil fuel combustion. No matter how many measures biologists have taken, flue gas is still hard to combat and the industrial activities that most countries carry out are of no help. Nevertheless, scientists think there is still hope: they plan to stimulate formation of deep-sea bacteria in the water and reduce carbon dioxide.
Robert McKenna, a PhD Professor at the University of Florida, has praised the new discovery that scientists have made. The fact that the bacterium functions in extreme temperature conditions makes Thiomicrospira crunogena the long-sought solution for greenhouse gases, McKenna has added.
The study may be found in the journal of Biological Crystallography and Chemical Engineering Science. For more information of greenhouse emissions, read here.
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