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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the artificial-chlorophyl dept.

St John's College:

Photosynthesis is the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy. Oxygen is produced as by-product of photosynthesis when the water absorbed by plants is 'split'. It is one of the most important reactions on the planet because it is the source of nearly all of the world's oxygen. Hydrogen which is produced when the water is split could potentially be a green and unlimited source of renewable energy.

A new study, led by academics at St John's College, University of Cambridge, used semi-artificial photosynthesis to explore new ways to produce and store solar energy. They used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of biological components and humanmade technologies.

The research could now be used to revolutionise the systems used for renewable energy production. A new paper, published in Nature Energy, outlines how academics at the Reisner Laboratory in Cambridge developed their platform to achieve unassisted solar-driven water-splitting.

Their method also managed to absorb more solar light than natural photosynthesis.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:02PM (11 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:02PM (#730739) Journal

    Does this even beat photovoltaic-powered electrolysis?

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:25PM (7 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:25PM (#730747)

    Just to bracket it:

    Their method also managed to absorb more solar light than natural photosynthesis.

    Natty photosynthesis is lucky to break 5%, under realistic non-lab non-aggressive industrial ag conditions maybe 3%.

    Big news in solar cells was when commodity COTS panel modules complete as installed including glass and temp losses started beating 20%. And water electrolysis is pretty known industrial task around 75%, so 15%

    I found this journal article dated three weeks ago with her listed as an author; the article seems to be a little more optimistic than the paper, and by a little I mean on the level of "Hillary 99% guaranteed to win". Really the article is much more about "cute girl does chemistry" than about her research.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6100105/ [nih.gov]

    WRT relative efficiency, I remember running the numbers with my wife, if you live on a 40 acre wooded lot you can heat your house by having a hobby of chopping down trees and putting out chimney fires, but it turns out a surprisingly small area of solar panel connected to space heater with decent thermal mass and wall insulation does take about 10x less land surface area. I've been toying with the idea of putting a panel in my backyard hooked up to a space heater in my house; its not that expensive and its an interesting way to drop my gas bill permanently. The economics aren't quite there but they're REALLY close.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:45PM (#730843)

      Ugh, i was almost impressed you had an informative post with no vitriol, then i got halfway and reality sunk back in.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:01PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:01PM (#730926)

      10x less land surface area

      Or... about 4 acres of photovoltaics (plus storage) to power a home's HVAC.

      The cool thing about the photosynthesis route would be carbon re-sequestration.

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    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:03PM (4 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:03PM (#730928)

      I've been toying with the idea of putting a panel in my backyard hooked up to a space heater in my house; its not that expensive and its an interesting way to drop my gas bill permanently. The economics aren't quite there but they're REALLY close.

      One quip I forgot to throw in about 4 acres of PV panels: keeping them clean. That's actually quite an endeavor onto itself - not too bad for a little 100W setup on a liveaboard boat or somesuch, but if you're trying to push 20A @ 110VAC, that's a lot of bird poo to wash off.

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      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday September 06 2018, @11:57AM (3 children)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 06 2018, @11:57AM (#731256)

        Fair enough although thats a classic "east of mississippi" "west of mississippi" issue, in the sense that there are people living in literal deserts whereas where I live there's about three feet of rain per year.

        Semi-serious question, do people in desert / west areas have to wash the bird poop off their roofs? Certainly no one in my state has ever had to do such a thing.

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:32PM (2 children)

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:32PM (#731262)

          no birds, no poop, I imagine.

          Most of the US is far enough north that the panels are set up at a pretty good angle (30-45 degrees) so a lot just slides off, but... in Florida and Texas we get a pervasive black mold on just about everything that isn't chemically treated, and the chemical treatment only lasts a few years before it loses effectiveness.

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          • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 07 2018, @11:30AM (1 child)

            by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 07 2018, @11:30AM (#731713)

            pervasive black mold on just about everything

            Yuck like a microscopic Kudzu plant

            • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 07 2018, @12:38PM

              by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 07 2018, @12:38PM (#731731)

              It's pretty demoralizing - pressure wash it away, see it completely regrown within a year. It gets slippery on sidewalks, turns buildings and all sorts of other vertical surfaces a streaky black, and occasionally it releases spores.

              In Houston they blamed the mold spores for the crap in the air, but my ionic filter didn't collect mold spores so much, it did collect tar-dust, which turns sticky again when concentrated on a collector.

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  • (Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:28PM (2 children)

    by pkrasimirov (3358) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 05 2018, @01:28PM (#730748)

    You can store tons of LH2 and LO2, something you cannot do as easily with batteries.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:23PM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:23PM (#730796) Journal

      You can store tons of LH2

      I doubt takyon can. 23K is not cheap to maintain over long times.

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      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:30PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:30PM (#730826) Journal

        So I guess storing it as solids is out then? :-)

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