Anything plants can do we can do better

Who says we need more trees? Worldwide deforestation has had devastating effects on the environment and is thought to be rapidly accelerating the process of global warming. Panasonic is hoping to combat increasing carbon dioxide levels with a new process called artificial photosynthesis.

Artificial photosynthesis is a technology that uses sunlight to produce oxygen and organic substances from water and carbon dioxide. It is currently receiving global attention because it has the potential to solve global warming and provide renewable energy. The process has recently attained an efficiency of .2%, which is roughly equivalent to the efficiency of real plants used in biomass energy.

In artificial photosynthesis, a photo-electrode is filled with water and then illuminated, either by the sun or bright LEDs. The light causes the water molecules to react, producing oxygen gas, electrons, and hydrogen ions. Wires carry the electrons produced during the reaction to a catalyst electrode, where they react with carbon dioxide and hydrogen ions to produce organic substances. Currently, the reduction reaction produces primarily formic acid (HCOOH) but Panasonic hopes that in the future they will be able to produce a variety of other organic compounds.

2H2O + light → 2H+ + O2 + 2e

2H+ + 2e + CO2 → HCOOH

In order for the reaction to take place, electrons must be excited to a high energy-state. Panasonic is experimenting with nitride semiconductor LED lamps and sunlight as a means for exciting the electrons so that they will react with CO2. Additionally, by altering the material used for the metal catalyst, it is possible to change the organic substances produced in the reaction, so that it can produce more useful compounds than formic acid.

Panasonic would like to reach a level of efficiency similar to that of plants used in ethanol production before it begins implementing this technology on a large scale. The ultimate goal of the technology is the creation of artificial photosynthesis plants which would absorb CO2 from factories and produce ethanol.

Is this exciting technology or do you think that the efficiency is too low to make it a viable option? Will this “Pan” out?

2 thoughts on “Anything plants can do we can do better

  1. Mike Giallorenzo

    Yeah! Plants can suck it! Seriously though that’s weird and kind of disconcerting. If we can get past the need for plants (which would take a looong time but is apparently not as impossible as I would have thought), a really depressing, plant-less planet would suddenly become possible. Like that futuristic episode of Spongebob where they went to the future. There were no plants, or organic matter, only chrome. Obviously that’ll never happen, but maybe it could

  2. Mark Steiner

    I feel like beating plants is sort of a lofty dream. I mean, they have been evolving for berjillions of years.

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