A more reasonable alternative fuel source

[polksalet]

“SPLITTING WATER MOLECULES THE NEXT ‘GREEN’ POWER SOURCE?

Part of article by Brian Handwerk in 03/05/07 National Geographic News

 

“A limitless renewable energy source that can wean humans off fossil fuels has existed for billions of years, according to the latest report from a ‘green’ scientist. The trick to using it is figuring out how to make our power sources more like plants – and a recent discovery may bring scientists closer to the goal.

 

“Plants use photosynthesis to capture energy directly from the sun, a feat that humans have been striving to achieve for years via solar cells. ‘How will mankind be able to supply itself with the levels of energy it needs?’ asked James Barber, a biochemist at Imperial College London. ‘Really, there is only one solution…to use the enormous amount of sunlight available to us.’

 

“An hour of sunlight falling on Earth equals all the energy that humans use on average in a year. But to date solar cells have been inefficient energy converters – the most efficient plastic solar cells on today’s market convert only 6 percent of sunlight into usable energy.

 

“Another option is to mimic the chemical reactions in photosynthesis, Barber said, specifically a step known as water splitting. Water splitting is a complex chemical reaction that takes places in leaves, algae, phytoplankton, and other green organisms. The plants use the sun’s energy to break down water into its components: oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen produced is released into the atmosphere. The hydrogen is used to convert carbon dioxide taken from the air into the carbon-based organic molecules that form plants’ tissues…Barber notes that recent research has identified the structure of water splitting’s key enzyme, photosystem ll…

 

“‘This is a very difficult chemical problem and nature solved it,’ said Gary Brudvig, a biophysical chemist at Yale University who has also been researching photosystem ll. ‘We’ve first been trying to figure out how nature does the chemistry and – once we’ve obtained a reasonable idea of how the natural system works – we [will try] to replicate that in artificial systems.’

 

“Hydrogen produced by artificial water splitting could be used as a stand-alone fuel…Alternatively, scientists could further mimic plants and combine the hydrogen with carbon compounds to produce fuels. Many of today’s carbon-based fuels are currently derived from photosynthesis that took place millions of years ago. That energy is stored in the form of oil, gas, and coal. But, Brudvig said, a more efficient energy solution depends on duplicating natural systems rather than relying on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels…I think to get really high efficiency, we’ll have to have artificial systems come on at a later point…

 

“Imperial College’s Barber agreed, noting that plant ‘biology solved its energy problem a very long time ago by using sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. If the leaf can do it, we can do it.”

[isleseeya]

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“Imperial College’s Barber agreed, noting that plant ‘biology solved its energy problem a very long time ago by using sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. If the leaf can do it, we can do it.”

 

 

not sure,Leaves can be far more sophisticated than we can

 

 

for proof just look for the thread on two girls eating pooh from a dish