Environmental phenomenon: Electric Fungi!

Energy is a vital resource for everyone on Earth. It keeps the world moving. Yet, with the demand for energy forever rising, while non-renewable resources such as coal and oil are running thin, scientists and environmentalists have been striving to find other means of generating energy in order to fuel our Earth and not destroy it in the process. 

That’s where renewable energy comes in. Over the years, advances in renewable energy such as geothermal, wind, solar and hydropower have been refined as we work against the impact of climate change, and most recently investigations surrounding fungi have begun to bear fruit: could electricity producing fungi be a perfect solution to our growing energy crisis? 

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The technology behind how fungi are capable of producing energy is still being discovered, however thanks to the past investigations, and more recently the investigations conducted by Swiss scientists Joshi and Manoor, they have begun to discover the ins and outs of this new mode of electricity production. 

Joshi and Manoor discovered that by using fungi as mediums for cyanobacteria (a blue green algae found commonly in aquatic habitats) to grow, alongside special 3D printing ink made entirely with biological matter, the fungi was able to act as a conductor for electricity produced by the cyanobacteria via photosynthesising light. Thus, the fungi are used as a host to be able to generate a photocurrent for electron transfer. This electricity produced in a chain with several ‘mushroom batteries’ was found to be able to power a small lamp, and while this seems like a small achievement, with more investigations these ‘mushroom batteries’ could be revolutionary as not only is the electricity produced clean, but they are also entirely biodegradable, causing very little impact on our climate.

With genetic engineering conducted on cyanobacteria proving that the molecules can be changed to generate higher photo currents leading to higher electrical production, what limits are there to ‘mushroom batteries’?

A QUICK HISTORY OF ELECTRIC FUNGI DISCOVERIES

Electric fungi was first discovered in 1962 by Slayman and Slayman who found that there were occasional random action potentials within the fungi. Although, they used Neurospora crassa, which is a type of fungi of which its mycelium does not persist in its environment for a long time. Due to this, the electrical signals were low - however this could be a result of the mycelium not needing such a complex communication system in this case. The idea of electric fungi was entirely confirmed by Olsson and Hansson in 1995 when they developed the idea that electrical signalling must occur in fungi, just as it does in the human nervous system. The speed of communication within fungal mycelium, in their perspective, could only be a result of electrical signals. Due to this, they concluded electrical signalling must occur within fungal mycelium. Unlike Neurospora crassa, the fungi they utilised had much larger mycelium which could stretch acres of land. Therefore, suggesting that in different fungi different communication mechanisms may be used depending on the area their mycelium covers. 

Following the initial discoveries of electric fungi, research plateaued since the donations provided for this research was extremely low. However, over the last decade, ideas of electricity being created by fungi have become more widely researched. 

More recently, Swiss scientists have completed and continue to research the usage of electric fungi as batteries, to source a more sustainable type of energy. Most importantly, once the fungal battery has completed its job as an energy source it independently digests itself, making it completely biodegradable. Furthermore, research has been completed into the use of electric fungi within fungal-mediated fuel cells (FFCs). Essentially, these fuel cells use electric fungi as an exoelectrogen (biocatalyst) to increase energy creation efficiency, as well as oxidising electric fungi to create electrons and protons to later produce energy.

3D Printed Fungi Battery

While all of this groundbreaking research is extremely beneficial for humanity’s battle against climate change, there is not enough research being done. Although electric fungi could be the future of energy production, financially the research isn’t being sustained and there isn’t enough awareness or knowledge surrounding electric fungi to entice new scientists into working on its development. Therefore, it is essential that we do look to the past to see the foundations of electric fungi development - however, it is even more crucial that scientists look to the future of electric fungi research as a possible way to save the planet.

GENERAL BENEFITS

Benefits	Disadvantages
Renewable	Very new research
Biodegradable	Small volume of research
Natural source
Non-toxic (unlike usual batteries)
Extremely independent
Promising energy source

FUTURE PROSPECTS

The future abilities of electric fungi are widely unknown since major research has only reconvened in more recent years. However, there are some promising uses for electric fungi already in the works, and the possibilities of what it can do to help the environment are huge. 

One potential usage for electric fungi is as a source of energy, whether that be through fungal batteries, fuel cells, or even diesel production. In Switzerland, scientists have begun groundbreaking research into the use of fungi as a battery. To do this they 3D print fungal cells into printing ink in a way that means the electrodes in the microorganisms have easy access to nutrients, which increases their electric ability. The anode (negative) side of the battery is a yeast fungus that releases electrons, while on the cathode (positive) side there is a white rot fungus which can harness the electrons to be used outside the cell. Therefore, producing energy outside of the cell - and once it has completed its job it biodegrades independently. While fungal electricity is still not overly powerful, it could be used to power a temperature sensor for several days. Considering this is only the start of what electric fungi could be used for it’s likely it will eventually have the ability to power much larger scale activities for longer periods of time sustainably. 

As we move to more sustainable energy sources in order to save the planet, sources of energy such as electric fungi should be used increasingly more as they are completely renewable and biodegradable. Essentially establishing a waste-free energy source. This could be particularly helpful in low income countries (LICs) and smaller communities since fungi production is relatively simple and cheap. As well as this, since they won’t necessarily need major volumes of energy, electric fungi could be their future source of energy. In this way, electric fungi could be the solution to the climate crisis as we know it, however this can only occur if research continues to be funded adequately.

CONCLUSION

It is clear that fungi are hidden jewels of biological discovery with capabilities that we haven’t even discovered yet. The fact that they are able to produce green electricity alongside cyanobacteria is proof that these organisms are invaluable in the pursuit of finding solutions to modern day problems, therefore, why are more discoveries not being made? The limitations are rooted in a lack of funding and awareness surrounding fungal experimentation, but with such potential is it not worth investing in this groundbreaking new technology?

Belly laughs with Bio

What is the opposite of some boring guys?

Some fun-gi!

So, question of the day…

Is electric fungi the key to the future of energy or will researchers continue to dismiss a potentially groundbreaking method of energy production?