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[Michaelangelica]

Q- Tips for jumpstarting "wee beasties" in terra preta?
A-Feed them with mains power??

The researchers have determined that a single-celled microorganism, a type of archaea, uses electricity to convert carbon dioxide and water into methane. Sustainable energy expert Tom Curtis comments that the use of microorganisms, rather than conventional catalysts, is a plus. “There are no noble metals involved, so it should be very cheap,” he says. Of the energy put into the system as electricity, 80% was eventually recovered when the methane was burned – a fairly high efficiency. “You don’t get all the energy back, but that’s a problem with any form of energy storage,” says Curtis [New Scientist].

According to the new study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, the microbe is used as part of an electrolytic cell. An electrolytic cell is the opposite of a battery – a battery takes two compounds that want to react with each other and taps that potential in the form of electricity. In an electrolytic cell, the electrons are pumped in and they drive the reaction uphill, so to speak. In this case that uphill reaction is CO2 turning into CH4 (the opposite of the downhill version, which happens when we burn CH4, or any other fossil fuel) [EcoGeek]. The microbe acts as a catalyst for the process.

Better Than a Battery? Here’s a Microbe That Could Help Store Clean Energy
Also
Wiki

Initially, archaea were seen as extremophiles that lived in harsh environments, such as hot springs and salt lakes, but they have since been found in a broad range of habitats, such as soils, oceans, and marshlands. Archaea are particularly numerous in the oceans, and the archaea in plankton may be one of the most abundant groups of organisms on the planet. These prokaryotes are now recognized as a major part of life on Earth and may play an important role in both the carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle.
No clear examples of archaeal pathogens or parasites are known, but they are often mutualists or commensals. One example are the methanogenic archaea that inhabit the gut of humans and ruminants, where they are present in vast numbers and aid in the digestion of food.

Archaea have some importance in technology, with methanogens used to produce biogas and as part of sewage treatment, and enzymes from extremophile archaea that can resist high temperatures and organic solvents are exploited in biotechnology.

Also at
EcoGeek - Clean Technology

(sorry my browser (firefox) is being silly -again- and i cant get URLs! Why won't Google and Firefox sit down and talk!)