NSF Grants ECE’s Jun Yao and Two Colleagues $1.5-million Award to Harvest Clean Energy from Thin Air

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Principal Investigator (PI) and Associate Professor Jun Yao of the UMass Amherst Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department has collaborated with his two on-campus co-PIs – Professor Deepak Ganesan of the College of Information and Computer Sciences and Research Assistant Professor Toshiyuki Ueki of the Microbiology Department – to obtain a prestigious $1.5-million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a new kind of technology termed “Air-gen” that can generate electricity from moisture in the air. 

As Yao explains, “Moisture in the air can carry electricity, as demonstrated by the lightning we see during a thunderstorm. This means that power can be retrieved anytime, anywhere, without relying on the sun, wind, or even a battery.” 

According to Ganesan, an expert in wearable electronics, “The world is becoming more connected through smart devices such as fitness trackers, environmental sensors, and portable gadgets. Finding reliable ways to power them is becoming more important than ever. Today’s batteries do not last forever, can be unpredictable, and often harm the environment when they are thrown away. Other energy sources, like solar or wind, do not always work, depending on the weather or location.”

In answer to these challenges, say Yao and his associates, “The goal of this research project is to develop wafer-scale, modular integration of Air-gen technology as a universal and ubiquitous powering solution for Internet of Things and wearable devices.” 

The researchers say that their Air-gen technology is made from a nanoporous thin film with one surface sealed and the other exposed to the air. The asymmetric structure enables charge separation between the two interfaces, driven by interactions with air-water molecules in ambient air, thereby generating free-flowing electricity.

“To achieve this overarching goal,” say Yao and his colleagues, “the project will engineer microorganisms to serve as sustainable bio-factories for producing protein nanowires as the core material used in Air-gen fabrication. Wafer-compatible and scalable-integration methods are proposed and investigated to scale up Air-gen power production. These devices are implemented in sleep- and environmental-monitoring systems to demonstrate their potential as a reliable, self-sustaining power source.” 

According to Ueki, an expert in microbiology, “The benefit of using microorganisms as bio-factories for material supply is to enable eco-friendly and renewable Air-gen production, reducing e-waste and further sustaining the environment.” 

This research leverages multidisciplinary expertise, including microbial-material engineering, electronic-device fabrication, and circuit and system integration. The continued development of Air-gen technology can enable next-generation power solutions for a wide range of systems, including wearable electronics, mobile computing, biomedical devices, the Internet of Things, and autonomous microsystems.

As the research team summarizes its NSF project, “The intellectual merit of this project lies primarily in its conceptual and technological breakthroughs toward a novel form of sustainable energy, with the potential to significantly advance the vision of ubiquitous powering and computing.” 

Yao and colleagues conclude that “The broader impacts of this project include applying the developed technologies to clinical settings such as aging and Alzheimer’s care, promoting technology transfer for commercialization, and creating education opportunities to help enhance public awareness of the critical role that science- and technology-driven innovation plays in the development of sustainable solutions.”