{"id":35307,"date":"2016-06-10T07:26:13","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T05:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=35307"},"modified":"2021-09-09T21:41:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T19:41:21","slug":"bionic-leaf-turns-sunlight-into-liquid-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/bionic-leaf-turns-sunlight-into-liquid-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Bionic leaf turns sunlight into liquid fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The days of drilling into the ground in the search for fuel may be numbered, because if <a href=\"http:\/\/nocera.harvard.edu\/Home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Nocera<\/a> has his way, it\u2019ll just be a matter of looking for sunny skies.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nocera, the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, and <a href=\"https:\/\/silver.med.harvard.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pamela Silver<\/a>, 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The paper, whose lead authors include postdoctoral fellow Chong Liu and graduate student Brendan Col\u00f3n, is described in a June 3 <a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/352\/6290\/1210\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paper published in Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a true artificial photosynthesis system,\u201d Nocera said. \u201cBefore, people were using artificial photosynthesis for water-splitting, but this is a true A-to-Z system, and we\u2019ve gone well over the efficiency of photosynthesis in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the study shows the system can be used to generate usable fuels, its potential doesn\u2019t end there, said Silver, who is also a founding core member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.<\/p>\n<h3>Bionic Leaf Turns Sunlight Into Liquid Fuel<\/h3>\n<div class=\"BorlabsCookie _brlbs-cb-youtube\">\n<div class=\"_brlbs-content-blocker\">\n<div class=\"_brlbs-embed _brlbs-video-youtube\"> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"_brlbs-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/borlabs-cookie\/assets\/images\/cb-no-thumbnail.png\" alt=\"YouTube\"> <\/p>\n<div class=\"_brlbs-caption\">\n<p>By loading the video, you agree to YouTube&#8217;s privacy policy.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy?hl=en&amp;gl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"_brlbs-btn _brlbs-icon-play-white\" href=\"#\" data-borlabs-cookie-unblock role=\"button\">Load video<\/a><\/p>\n<p><label><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"unblockAll\" value=\"1\" checked> <small>Always unblock YouTube<\/small><\/label><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"borlabs-hide\" data-borlabs-cookie-type=\"content-blocker\" data-borlabs-cookie-id=\"youtube\"><script type=\"text\/template\">PGlmcmFtZSB0aXRsZT0iQmlvbmljIExlYWYgVHVybnMgU3VubGlnaHQgSW50byBMaXF1aWQgRnVlbCIgd2lkdGg9IjUwMCIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyODEiIHNyYz0iaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS1ub2Nvb2tpZS5jb20vZW1iZWQvMktSbFJoTmJ4S2c\/ZmVhdHVyZT1vZW1iZWQiIGZyYW1lYm9yZGVyPSIwIiBhbGxvdz0iYWNjZWxlcm9tZXRlcjsgYXV0b3BsYXk7IGNsaXBib2FyZC13cml0ZTsgZW5jcnlwdGVkLW1lZGlhOyBneXJvc2NvcGU7IHBpY3R1cmUtaW4tcGljdHVyZTsgd2ViLXNoYXJlIiByZWZlcnJlcnBvbGljeT0ic3RyaWN0LW9yaWdpbi13aGVuLWNyb3NzLW9yaWdpbiIgYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuPjwvaWZyYW1lPg==<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A cross-disciplinary 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe beauty of biology is it\u2019s the world\u2019s greatest chemist \u2014 biology can do chemistry we can\u2019t do easily,\u201d she said. \u201cIn principle, we have a platform that can make any downstream carbon-based molecule. So this has the potential to be incredibly versatile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dubbed \u201cbionic leaf 2.0,\u201d the new system builds on previous work by Nocera, Silver, and others, which \u2014 though it was capable of using solar energy to make isopropanol \u2014 faced a number of challenges. Chief among those, Nocera said, was the fact that the catalyst used to produce hydrogen \u2014 a nickel-molybdenum-zinc alloy \u2014 also created reactive oxygen species, molecules that attacked and destroyed the bacteria\u2019s DNA. To avoid that, researchers were forced to run the system at abnormally high voltages, resulting in reduced efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor this paper, we designed a new cobalt-phosphorous alloy catalyst, which we showed does not make reactive oxygen species,\u201d Nocera said. \u201cThat allowed us to lower the voltage, and that led to a dramatic increase in efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to increasing the efficiency, Nocera and colleagues were able to expand the portfolio of the system to include isobutanol and isopentanol. Researchers also used the system to create PHB, a bio-plastic precursor, a process first demonstrated by Professor Anthony Sinskey of MIT.<\/p>\n<p>The new catalyst also came with another advantage \u2014 its chemical design allows it to \u201cself-heal,\u201d meaning it wouldn\u2019t leach material into solution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the genius of Dan,\u201d Silver said. \u201cThese catalysts are totally biologically compatible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though there may yet be room for additional increases in efficiency, Nocera said the system is already effective enough to consider possible commercial applications, but within a different model for technology translation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an important discovery \u2014 it says we can do better than photosynthesis,\u201d Nocera said. \u201cBut I also want to bring this technology to the developing world as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Working in conjunction with the First 100 Watts program at Harvard, which helped fund the research, Nocera hopes to continue developing the technology and its applications in nations like India with the help of their scientists.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, Nocera said, the new system marks the fulfillment of the promise of his \u201cartificial leaf,\u201d which used solar power to split water and make hydrogen fuel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you think about it, photosynthesis is amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt takes sunlight, water, and air \u2014 and then look at a tree. That\u2019s exactly what we did, but we do it significantly better, because we turn all that energy into a fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. The Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund is supporting ongoing research into the bionic leaf platform.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The days of drilling into the ground in the search for fuel may be numbered, because if Daniel Nocera has his way, it\u2019ll just be a matter of looking for sunny skies. Nocera, the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, and Pamela Silver, the Elliott T. and Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[5842,12266],"supplier":[3705,3396,1939,2012],"class_list":["post-35307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","tag-biomass","tag-liquidfuels","supplier-air-force-office-of-scientific-research","supplier-harvard-university","supplier-office-of-naval-research-onr","supplier-science-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35307"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=35307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}