With the development of an artificial photosynthesis technique, humanity may be one step closer to producing fuels utilizing the mechanism of plants.
When compared to earlier synthetic photosynthesis techniques, the new system is ten times more effective. The artificial process can convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into energy-dense fuels like methane and ethanol, whereas natural photosynthesis allows plants to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into carbohydrates utilizing the power of the sun. This might offer an alternative to fossil fuels extracted from the prehistoric rock.
Wenbin Lin, a chemist at the University of Chicago and one of the study’s authors, stated that the biggest problem is that even nature lacks an answer for the number of energy humans utilize. While natural photosynthesis is plenty for plants to feed themselves, it is insufficient to produce the amount of energy needed to power our homes, towns, and countries. It’s frightening to think that we’ll have to surpass nature, he remarked.
For years, scientists have tried to use the mechanisms of photosynthesis to make the molecules they want, but it is difficult to modify photosynthesis to meet our demands. The two-step, laborious process begins with the dissociation of CO2 and water, then connects the separated atoms to form carbohydrates. To make methane, or CH4, which is a carbon molecule surrounded by four hydrogen molecules, Lin and his team had to develop a system.
Though combusting this synthetic methane would still lead to greenhouse gas emissions, researchers are also working on using artificial photosynthesis to make hydrogen fuels, which release only water vapor and warm air.
Related: Effects of global warming
To do this, they began with a metal-organic framework — a web made of charged metal atoms linked by organic molecules. (Organic molecules contain carbon.) They submerged single layers of this metal-organic framework in a cobalt solution; this element is good at picking up electrons and moving them around during chemical reactions.
Then the researchers did something that hadn’t been tried before. They added amino acids, the molecular building blocks of proteins, to the mix. These amino acids boosted the efficiency of both sides of the reaction, breaking down CO2 and water and rebuilding them as methane. The resulting system was 10 times more efficient than previous artificial photosynthesis methods, the team reported in the journal Nature Catalysis (opens in new tab) on Nov. 10.
However, that’s still not efficient enough to make enough methane for human fuel use.
“Where we are now, it would need to scale up by many orders of magnitude to make a sufficient amount of methane for our consumption,” Lin said. But, he said, the team was able to determine how the system works on a molecular level, which had never been fully understood before. Understanding the process is a crucial step before they can scale up the process.
If the system isn’t currently efficient enough to fuel cars or heat homes, it may already be feasible for other uses that don’t require such a high volume of product. For example, Lin said, a similar method could be used to produce basic chemicals for pharmaceuticals.
“So many of these fundamental processes are the same,” said Lin. “If you develop good chemistries, they can be plugged into many systems.”
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