New method to convert sunlight into fuel

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have invented a technique that involves splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen gas in plants.

According to researchers, the hydrogen gas produced could become a green and limitless source of renewable energy.

The hydrogen gas produced could become a green and limitless source of renewable energy. (Illustration photo).

The team used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of biological components and artificial technologies.

Katarzyna Sokó, who led the study, said:“Natural photosynthesis is inefficient because it evolved only for survival, so it only produces the minimum amount of energy needed – about 1-2% of the mass it can transform and store.”

While artificial photosynthesis has been around for a long time, previous techniques relied on catalysts – which were often expensive and toxic. Unlike these techniques, the new technique uses an enzyme called hydrogenase, which is non-toxic.

“Hydrogenase is an enzyme found in algae that converts protons into hydrogen gas. During evolution, this process was deactivated because it was not necessary for survival, but we successfully bypassed the inactive state to achieve the desired reaction – splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen gas,” Sokó explains.

The researchers are hoping that their technique could be used on a larger scale to turn sunlight into fuel.

The team used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen gas.

Ms. Sokó added:“It’s exciting that we can selectively select the processes we want, and get the desired reactions that are not possible in nature. This could be a great basis for developing solar energy technologies. This method could be used to combine different reactions together to see what can be done, learn from these reactions, and then create more practical, synthetic solar energy technologies.”