Improve energy storage capabilities to allow for more efficient utilization of renewable energy sources.

Engineer microbiome communities to temporarily store solar energy (e.g., over hours, days), independent of their own biomass needs.

• Technical Achievement: Engineer light-responsive microbiomes that track across surfaces to maximize energy capture over the course of the day.
• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbiomes that interface with solar panels and utilize photovoltaic energy to produce biofuels, reducing the need for large battery storage, despite possibly lower efficiency.

Engineer microbiome communities to store wind, hydroelectric, or other renewable energy (e.g., over hours, days), independent of their own biomass needs.

• Technical Achievement: Design biofuel production facilities so they can utilize excess mechanical or thermal energy (e.g., for heating, cooling, mixing) in these renewable energy sources.
• Technical Achievement: Engineer electroactive microbiomes so carbon fixation occurs across multiple species to increase energy capture (e.g., an electroactive microbe makes a precursor that other community members metabolize for biofuel production).

Decrease energy consumption in infrastructure (e.g., buildings, vehicles, pipelines, transportation).

Design microbiome-derived surface coatings that increase efficiency (e.g., prevent biofouling, reduce friction).

• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbial biofilms that produce antimicrobial compounds (e.g., antimicrobial peptides, antibiotics, anti-quorum sensing) to prevent fouling (e.g., barnacles on ships).
• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbial biofilms that physically modify surfaces to decrease bacterial attachment sites and prevent bacterial adhesion.¹Dang, H., & Lovell, C. R. (2016). Microbial Surface Colonization and Biofilm Development in Marine Environments. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 80(1), 91–138. View Publication
• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbial biofilms that degrade bacterial holdfast structures to prevent “primary surface colonizers” from attaching and starting the biofilm formation process.
• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbiomes that produce biofilms to reduce shear (e.g., wind, water) or friction.

Create microbiomes to sense and respond to leaks and restrictions.

• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbiomes that sense leaks in pipelines (e.g., by detecting changes in laminar flow) and produce a dye to indicate damage.
• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbiomes that produce fibrous, impermeable structures to patch leaks in pipelines/tubing (e.g., microbial platelets).
• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbial consortia that target and degrade solid deposits or blockages in pipelines.
• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbial consortia that deter growth of iron oxidizing and reducing microbes that promote corrosion in pipelines.

Design microbiomes that transform waste into a non-transportation energy source (e.g., heat generation, cooling).

• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbiomes with metabolisms engineered to convert energy into heat rather than biomass growth.
• Technical Achievement: Engineer microbiomes that absorb heat from the environment to reduce building cooling costs.

Footnotes

1. Dang, H., & Lovell, C. R. (2016). Microbial Surface Colonization and Biofilm Development in Marine Environments. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 80(1), 91–138. https://doi.org/10.1128/MMBR.00037-15