The process of photosynthesis – one of the most important on the planet. Thanks to him, and there is life. However, can it be used for other purposes? It turns out that through this process, energy can be slightly “modified”.
According to the publication Nature Energy, the new process of “recycling” connections are called “semi-artificial photosynthesis” and its development are researchers from St. John’s College at Cambridge University. As stated by one of the authors of Katargina Falcon
“The natural process of photosynthesis in terms of energy inefficient, requiring only for the survival of plants. That is why he gives only 1-2% of the capacity which it is capable. Artificial photosynthesis has long been known, but it has never been used to create renewable energy, as catalysts for its reactions are very toxic.”
Experimental setup for semi-artificial photosynthesis
A group of scientists from Cambridge have decided to use a slightly different approach. For their purposes, they used the enzyme hydrogenase, which is able to participate in the process of photosynthesis, but some plants it is inactive. Developing a special method, experts were able to activate it from algae and to achieve what they were able to split water into components with the release of energy.
“Hydrogenase is present in many species of algae and can reduce the number of protons in the hydrogen, which is accompanied by release of energy. In the course of evolution, its production in algae have been deactivated as not needed for survival. We were able to return some algae this feature and have ensured that they started to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The new method can be applied, for example, to produce energy, transforming sunlight and water. Now the experimental setup uses hydrogenase and solar cells to start the process of semi-artificial photosynthesis.”
Process semi-artificial photosynthesis helps to produce energy from sunlight
Vladimir Kuznetsov