UK scientists hope plant power could replace power plants

25/01/2013

Project to generate hydrogen by replicating photosynthesis holds out promise of highly efficient green fuel UK scientists are hoping to harness the process plants use to turn sunlight into energy to produce a new highly efficient and renewable source of zero-carbon fuel.

A team of researchers working at the Universities of East Anglia (UEA), Cambridge, and Leeds has today confirmed it has been awarded £800,000 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in a move designed to accelerate its research into the highly promising technology.

The project aims to artificially replicate photosynthesis and use the energy produced to generate hydrogen gas, which can then be used to power vehicles or generate electricity.

Through photosynthesis light absorbed by green chlorophyll pigments generates an energised electron that is directed, along chains of metal centres, to catalysts that make sugars.

The researchers are attempting to copy the process by placing tiny solar cells on microbes to harness sunlight and drive the production of hydrogen. The team predict the approach will prove far more efficient than existing solar PV technologies.

Lead researcher Prof Julea Butt from UEA's school of Chemistry and Biological Sciences said the technique could help overcome the challenges of converting renewable energy into fuels from which energy can be released on demand at the flick of a switch.

"Many renewable energy supplies, such as sunlight, wind and the waves, remain largely untapped resources," she added.

"We imagine that our photocatalysts will prove versatile and that with slight modification they will be able to harness solar energy for the manufacture of carbon-based fuels, drugs and fine chemicals."

Source: businessgreen.com

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