Posted 08.01.2012 at 12:16 pm
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Artificial Photosynthesis Yielding Formic Acid
Panasonic
Artificial photosynthesis--the idea that we might be able to create energy and other useful thing from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide, as plants do--is something of a holy grail for energy and green chemistry researchers. And while some efforts have shown modest potential--MIT’s Nocera Lab, for instance, claims to have created an artificial leaf from stable materials--efficiency is still a problem. That hasn’t stopped consumer electronics giant Panasonic; the company yesterday revealed that it is investing in artificial photosynthesis technology that turns carbon dioxide and sunlight into industrial chemicals. Just add water.
Panasonic’s two-step approach involves a nitride semiconductor that converts sunlight into a flow of electrons that splits water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen. A second reaction then coverts carbon dioxide and the harvested hydrogen into formic acid via a metallic catalyst. Formic acid is a widely-used chemical in textile production and food preservation, particularly for livestock feed (fun fact: it occurs naturally in bee and ant venom).
The problem here--as always--is efficiency. The conversion of water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide to formic acid reaches just two-tenths of one percent efficiency, far below the threshold that could make it commercially viable. But every technology starts somewhere. The company will present the research at this week’s International Conference on Photochemical Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy.
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yes!!! please invest invest invest!!! or society needs this. we are cutting down trees and we need a replacment for cities to have. where can we donate to the project?
I'm not sure why we're still on this kick. Algae solves our energy needs, sequesters CO2 & cleans the air. It's a proven biological recourse with efficiency & benefits far beyond anything we're currently using. wake up people.
Because....water and sunlight aren't useful?
Nice theme and cool idea, guests www.new-biz.com.ua like it
Think of a mobile phone that can continuously recharge itself by making use of ambient humidity, ambient carbon dioxide, and sunlight! These resources surround us wholly and if they could be tapped into efficiently would be a kind of energy holy grail. I already only wear Casio watches because of their use of light for perpetual energy and the atomic clock for accuracy. Now give me a self-sufficient cell-phone and laptop and I can throw the rechargers away. Scale it up and I'll tell the Power Company how archaic and over-priced their model is because they refuse to evolve. Go Panasonic and all others in this field, this is what the world truly needs.
And thus the seed of life was granted to that which was not. Why can't we, just out of curiosity, use a living organism and artificial synthesis to base a matrix for the brain of a true automaton? Say maybe a coral? The cyborg fly was cool, but we don't want our first attempts at a real sentient automata to be inherently predatory, as many insects tend to be.