Efficient Fuel Creation Inspired by Plants

Innovation: Academia

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

2020

Image: krystina rogers / Unsplash / CC BY SA - Creative Commons Attribution + ShareAlike

Modify Energy State

The ability to modify the energy state of different particles can be useful for harnessing the energy organisms need to survive. Explore how different organisms use these abilities to adapt to their different environments.

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Chemically Break Down Organic Compounds

The vast majority of biochemical assembly and breakdown processes–even by the most complex organisms–occur within cells. In fact, cells are able to perform hundreds, even thousands of chemical transformations at the same time under life-friendly conditions (ambient temperature and pressure in an aqueous environment). Part of the reason that decomposition reactions (chemical breakdown) can occur under such mild conditions is because most often, they occur in a stepwise, enzyme-mediated fashion, sipping or releasing small amounts of energy at each step. For example, the breakdown of glucose to pyruvate–and the release of energy–occurs in the 10-step enzyme catalyzed process of glycolysis.

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Transform Radiant Energy (Light)

The sun is the ultimate source of energy for many living systems. The sun emits radiant energy, which is carried by light and other electromagnetic radiation as streams of photons. When radiant energy reaches a living system, two events can happen. The radiant energy can convert to heat, or living systems can convert it to chemical energy. The latter conversion is not simple, but is a multi-step process starting when living systems such as algae, some bacteria, and plants capture photons. For example, a potato plant captures photons then converts the light energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis, storing the chemical energy underground as carbohydrates. The carbohydrates in turn feed other living systems.

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Transform Chemical Energy

Life’s chemistry runs on the transformation of energy stored in chemical bonds. For example, glucose is a major energy storage molecule in living systems because the oxidative breakdown of glucose into carbon dioxide and water releases energy. Animals, fungi, and bacteria store up to 30,000 units of glucose in a single unit of glycogen, a 3-D structured molecule with branching chains of glucose molecules emanating from a protein core. When energy is needed for metabolic processes, glucose molecules are detached and oxidized.

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Catalyze Chemical Breakdown

Life depends upon the building up and breaking down of biological molecules. Catalysts, in the form of proteins or RNA, play an important role by dramatically increasing the rate of a chemical transformation––without being consumed in the reaction. The regulatory role that catalysts play in complex biochemical cascades is one reason so many simultaneous chemical transformations can occur inside living cells in water at ambient conditions. For example, consider the 10-enzyme catalytic breakdown and transformation of glucose to pyruvate in the glycolysis metabolic pathway.

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Stable solar-to-energy conversion from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology uses full cycle redox transformation to break water into hydrogen fuel.

Benefits

Sustainable
Scalable
Economical

Applications

Commercial and industrial energy generation

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 7: Affordable & Clean Energy

The Challenge

Most energy is generated through the burning of fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. These gases absorb solar energy and keep heat close to the Earth, also know as the greenhouse effect, which has led to global warming. Solar panels are a renewable energy alternative that do not burn fossil fuels. Traditional solar panels only start the flow of electricity, rather than create a fuel source for further energy generation.

Innovation Details

The photocatalyst can break down water into hydrogen fuel. It contains nanoparticles that generate positive and negative charges when in water and light. These charges simultaneously break the water molecule to produce hydrogen and oxygen, similar to the process that occurs during . The hydrogen stores energy within its bond that can be used later as a fuel to generate clean energy. The system shows a 4.2% solar to chemical energy conversion efficiency, higher than all preceding technologies.

Biological Model

Photosynthesis is essential for life on Earth. It is the process by which plants produce energy and oxygen using just sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide.

See Related Strategy

Biological Strategy

Photosynthesis Converts Solar Energy Into Chemical Energy

Plants

By absorbing the sun’s blue and red light, chlorophyll loses electrons, which become mobile forms of chemical energy that power plant growth.

References

Journal article

Photosynthetic H2 generation and organic transformations with CdSe@CdS-Pt nanorods for highly efficient solar-to-chemical energy conversion

Nano Energy

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