After 100 years of human engineering, the best man-made electric motor doesn't beat bacterial motors
Bacterial flagellar motor operates at close to 100% efficiency
https://new.abb.com/news/detail/1789/ABB-motor-sets-world-record-in-energy-efficiency-saves-half-a-million-dollars
Excerpt: "Tests carried out on a 44 megawatt 6-pole synchronous ABB motor shortly before delivery showed an efficiency 0.25 percent greater than the 98.8 percent stipulated in the contract, resulting in the world record for electric motor efficiency. This efficiency improvement could save approximately $500,000 in electrical energy costs over the course of a 20-year lifetime for each motor."
Synchronous motor electrical design
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23746149.2017.1289120
Excerpt: "This interaction is powered by the ion-motive force arising from the transit of ions (protons, in the case of the commonly studied Escherichia coli motor) across the cellular membrane. The BFM is remarkable in its ability to efficiently convert the free energy stored in this transmembrane electrochemical gradient into mechanical work: while man-made engines lose significant amounts of energy to heating, the BFM operates at close to 100% efficiency. Rotating at approximately 300 Hz (or 18000 rpm; compare to the upper limit of a typical car engine’s rotational speed of 6000 rpm), the E. coli motor can output a power of approximately 1.5 x 10^5 pN nm s-1 and propel the bacteria at a speed up to 100 um s-1 – that is, up to 100 body lengths per second! The BFM of other species have been shown to rotate several times faster."
Bacterial motor electrical design
My comment: The bacterial flagellar motor is one of the most powerful and efficient machines in existence. MO-1 marine bacterium has seven this kind of super-efficient ion flow motors synchronized with a 24-gear planetary gearbox to produce maximum power and torque. Evolution or Design? Man-made motors, after a hundred years of development, still don't beat these design masterpieces. And what's more astonishing is that bacteria are able to reproduce and clone these mechanical nano motors.
