{"id":26609,"date":"2018-09-10T13:51:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T17:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=26609"},"modified":"2022-03-16T10:23:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T14:23:10","slug":"semi-artificial-photosynthesis-sunlight-into-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/semi-artificial-photosynthesis-sunlight-into-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Semi-Artificial Photosynthesis: A New Way to Turn Sunlight Into Fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists at St. John\u2019s College, University of Cambridge, have developed a new process of converting sunlight into fuel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s \u201csemi-artificial photosynthesis\u201d method utilizes sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in a lab setting. Their process uses both biological components — an enzyme from algae — as well as man-made technologies, differentiating it from fully artificial photosynthesis, which uses only man-made elements.<\/p>\n

The research paper is published in the journal Nature Energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During photosynthesis, the natural process through which plants extract energy from sunlight and water, water absorbed by plants is split into oxygen and hydrogen in a process called hydrolysis. The hydrogen derived from this process could potentially be used as a sustainable — and unlimited — source of energy.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, natural photosynthesis is not generally efficient, producing only the small amount of energy necessary for an organism to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cNatural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed \u2013 around 1-2 percent of what it could potentially convert and store,\u201d first author Katarzyna Sok\u00f3\u0142, a doctoral student at St. John\u2019s College, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Artificial photosynthesis has existed for decades, but it has been hampered by its reliance on the use of catalysts, which are typically expensive and sometimes toxic.<\/p>\n

The first artificial photosynthetic method was developed in the late 1960s by Akira Fujishima, who discovered that titanium dioxide could be used to spur hydrolysis. So, the idea has been explored for decades, but an industrial-scale method has not been developed yet.<\/p>\n

The process developed by Sok\u00f3\u0142 and her team is part of a growing movement exploring semi-artificial photosynthesis, which utilizes biological elements to try to overcome some of the deficiencies of methods that rely on chemical catalysts.<\/p>\n

By extracting hydrogenase from algae, an organism — and by extension an enzyme — that can be found in abundance in nature, the researchers developed a process that could theoretically be much cheaper than many existing methods.<\/p>\n

In order to do so, they had to \u201creactivate\u201d the production of hydrogen in the algae.<\/p>\n

\u201cHydrogenase is an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen,\u201d Sok\u00f3\u0142 said in a statement. \u201cDuring evolution this process has been deactivated because it wasn\u2019t necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted — splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n

To accomplish this, she explained, they had to \u201creactivate\u201d hydrogen production in vitro, when the hydrogenase was integrated with other components in the semi-artificial device.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the semi-artificial device they developed could outperform natural systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could say that our system \u2018re-wired\u2019 photosystem II directly to hydrogenase and thus, \u2018re-engineered\u2019 the photosynthetic pathway that is inaccessible in biology, to achieve the desired reaction of water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen with high selectivity and efficiency,\u201d said Sok\u00f3\u0142.<\/p>\n

However, Sok\u00f3\u0142 explained, their project is still on the experimental scale and there is a long way to go before it could be applied on an industrial level.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopment of this model system overcomes many difficult challenges associated with the assembly of the synthetic-biological interface through a multi-disciplinary approach, and as a result provides the toolbox for developing future semi-artificial systems for solar energy conversion and storage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur system is a proof-of-concept device, as it is still too fragile to be applied as a large-scale technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the new technology is a big step toward large-scale semi-artificial photosynthesis.<\/p>\n

Sok\u00f3\u0142 emphasized that semi-artificial platforms could have a number of applications beyond harvesting solar-powered energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe semi-artificial platform could allow us to replace components and extend the application from solar water splitting to solar carbon dioxide fixation and replace fragile enzymes by more robust whole photosynthetic cells in future development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reduction of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide using chemical methods is even more challenging than water splitting to produce hydrogen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists at St. John\u2019s College, University of Cambridge, have developed a new process of converting sunlight into fuel. The team\u2019s \u201csemi-artificial photosynthesis\u201d method utilizes sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in a lab setting. Their process uses both biological components — an enzyme from algae — as well as man-made technologies, differentiating it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":26613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[637,233,230,229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alternative-energy","category-sustainable","category-news","category-lead-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1_KPS_NatEnergy-for-web.jpg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1_KPS_NatEnergy-for-web-224x144.jpg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1_KPS_NatEnergy-for-web-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1_KPS_NatEnergy-for-web.jpg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1_KPS_NatEnergy-for-web.jpg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1_KPS_NatEnergy-for-web.jpg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1_KPS_NatEnergy-for-web.jpg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Sam Benezra","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/sam-benezra\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Scientists at St. John\u2019s College, University of Cambridge, have developed a new process of converting sunlight into fuel. The team\u2019s \u201csemi-artificial photosynthesis\u201d method utilizes sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in a lab setting. Their process uses both biological components — an enzyme from algae — as well as man-made technologies, differentiating it…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1_KPS_NatEnergy-for-web.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}