overall carbon budget. In effect, it
could bypass the vegetation stage.
“It’s an important discovery. It says
we can
do better than photosynthesis”
Chemists and engineers the world
over are racing to exploit human
ingenuity and deliver brilliant solutions, including artificial leaves that
can capture carbon dioxide. The
challenge is to do so effectively,
cheaply and on a massive scale.
Which is why Professor Nocera’s
lab teamed up
with microbiologists led by biochemist and systems biologist Pamela Silver, of Harvard Medical
School.
The scientists report in Science journal that they have devised a hybrid
system based on cobalt-phosphorus
alloy catalyst partnered with bacteria called Ralstonia eutropha, which
splits water into oxygen and hydrogen at low voltages.
Organic chemistry
The microbes consume the free hydrogen and, in the presence of oxygen and carbon dioxide, begin
some organic chemistry. So far, the
system has made isobutanol and
isopentanol, and even a bio-plastic
precursor product.
The Harvard scientists say their bionic leaf converts solar energy to
biomass with an efficiency of 10%.
The fastest-growing plants do the
same with an efficiency of 1%.
What works in a laboratory may be
tricky to translate into large-scale
production, but the researchers are
confident they have something that
works.
Professor Nocera says: “It’s an important discovery. It says we can do
better than photosynthesis. But I
also want to bring this technology
to the developing world as well.
“If you think about it, photosynthesis is amazing. It takes sunlight, water and air – and then look at a
tree. That’s exactly what we did,
but we can do it significantly better, because we turn all that energy
into a fuel.” – Climate News Net-
work
Tim Radford: Climate News Network
Contact: [email protected]