海角社区

Replicating Plant Technology

海角社区 researchers are exploring new ways to use the oldest energy source on our planet鈥攕unlight鈥攖o create truly green energy on demand. You鈥檝e already heard of solar cells and solar panels, but David Vinyard, assistant professor in 海角社区鈥檚 Department of Biological Sciences, is looking at another method of harnessing the power of the Sun: photosynthesis.

The general idea of photosynthesis鈥攁 plant鈥檚 ability to absorb sunlight and use that energy to make sugars (biomass) from water and carbon dioxide鈥攊s well-known. But the exact mechanics are still being discovered. Vinyard tracks the process atom by atom, electron by electron.
 
鈥淚t鈥檚 shocking how much we don鈥檛 know about how nature converts light energy to chemical energy considering it鈥檚 happening at such a massive scale,鈥� Vinyard said. 鈥淚f we can learn the chemical and physical mechanisms used by nature, we can give those blueprints to chemists and engineers to develop clean energy conversion devices. Essentially, an artificial leaf.鈥�

An artificial leaf could be an inexpensive and efficient solar fuel cell. It could use light energy to strip electrons and hydrogen atoms from water, which then could be recombined to create hydrogen gas, a green fuel. Today, about 95% of all hydrogen is produced from natural gas, a fossil fuel, while an artificial leaf could produce it on demand using only water and sunlight.

鈥淎s the global and domestic energy markets become increasingly sensitive to management of carbon associated with our traditional energy sources, Dr. Vinyard鈥檚 work has the potential to help Louisiana diversify its energy economy by helping to provide more options in the makeup of our energy sources.鈥�

Jason Lanclos, director of the State Energy Office at the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources