Bionic leaf turns sunlight into liquid fuel

[senona]

A  team at Harvard University has created a system that uses solar energy to split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels.


The system can convert solar energy to biomass with 10 percent efficiency, far above the one percent seen in the fastest-growing plants.
 

Nocera, the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, and Pamela Silver, the Elliott T. and Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, have co-created a system that uses solar energy to split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels.

The paper, whose lead authors include postdoctoral fellow Chong Liu and graduate student Brendan Colón, is described in a June 3 paper published in Science.

“This is a true artificial photosynthesis system,” Nocera said. “Before, people were using artificial photosynthesis for water-splitting, but this is a true A-to-Z system, and we’ve gone well over the efficiency of photosynthesis in nature.”

While the study shows the system can be used to generate usable fuels, its potential doesn’t end there, said Silver, who is also a founding core member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

“The beauty of biology is it’s the world’s greatest chemist — biology can do chemistry we can’t do easily,” she said. “In principle, we have a platform that can make any downstream carbon-based molecule. So this has the potential to be incredibly versatile.”

“For this paper, we designed a new cobalt-phosphorous alloy catalyst, which we showed does not make reactive oxygen species,” Nocera said. “That allowed us to lower the voltage, and that led to a dramatic increase in efficiency.”

The system can now convert solar energy to biomass with 10 percent efficiency, Nocera said, far above the 1 percent seen in the fastest-growing plants.

The discovery opens new potential for renewable energy but breeds many new (welcome) challenges, said Nocera.

• What would a hydrogen-powered world look like?
  

• Will artificial leaves replace power plants and gas stations?
  

• With this technology, self-sustainability may become an option for low- and high-socioecomic communities alike, and for city dwellers as well as those living off the grid.
  

Source

 

This would be wonderful if it works as they say it does, and on a much larger scale.
 It might be a grand solution to so many things.

[Mystic Wanderer]

Now we're getting somewhere!  They are actually spending money on something useful.  :biggrin:

[senona]

Now we're getting somewhere!  They are actually spending money on something useful.  :biggrin:

So very true!!

It mentioned even for those living 'off the grid'

Just hope it is affordable enough for your average consumer when it comes out and not just be for the wealthy.