Government Funds Artificial Photosynthesis Hub
Taxpayer money funds research into artificial photosynthesis as a power source.
A USD122 million fund was awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the establishment of a research center that aims to develop ways of producing fuel using sunlight. Led by researchers at Caltech and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the project will tap other prestigious California institutions such as Stanford University, and the University of California (Irvine and Berkeley campuses).
According to Nate Lewis, director of the center and a chemistry professor at Caltech, the goal is to commercialize fuels made using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. In other words, make artificial photosynthesis a scalable, viable and economical reality.
Research on artificial photosynthesis tends to isolate on a certain aspect of photosynthesis (e.g. materials for trapping sunlight better, synthesis of better catalysts for splitting water etc.). The research center aims to become a nexus for collaboration that will employ rapid, automated experimentation methods to accelerate the development process.
The center plans to set up two facilities—one at the Berkeley Laboratory campus and another on the Caltech campus—as a first step. Over 150 researchers and 30 principal investigators will work full-time on the project over the next five years.
- Now Here's a Batpod You Can Actually Ride
- The Robot Elephant Made of Recycled Materials
- Google Suspends Android Wallpaper Apps
- Internet Infrastructure Receiving Security Update
- Nintendo to Announce 3DS Release in September
- Droid X Takes Pot Shot at iPhone 4 Case Situation
- Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Overheating iPads
- New Malware Disguised as McAfee VirusScan Trial
- AT&T Will Be 'Premier Windows Phone 7 Carrier'
- Simply the Best Earphone Packaging Ever
- Amazon Announces New, Improved Wi-Fi Kindle
- Best Buy Offering Free Skins to iPhone 4 Buyers
- Lara Croft Way is Now a Real Street in England
- Boy Receives Porn on Xbox Live; Mom Goes Nuts
- New Nissan Cars Will Spray Vitamin C Via A/C
- Hacker Makes ATMs Puke Money, Shows How
- Internet Explorer 9 Beta Scheduled for September
- Shirt Turns iPad Into T-Shirt Accessory
This is very good news.
I have more faith in something like this producing solar power than conventional solar cells. Semiconductor solar-cells are too particular to the wavelengths they respond to and their efficiency suffers as a result (although they are getting better with the newer multiple layer devices). After billions of years of tinkering by evolution, the various chlorophyll compounds are pretty efficient at harvesting from broad regions of solar energy and should provide us with a pretty good starting block for designing our own.
I'm glad to see our gov. interested in alternative energy sources.
After billions of years of tinkering by evolution, the various chlorophyll compounds are pretty efficient at harvesting from broad regions of solar energy and should provide us with a pretty good starting block for designing our own.
Actually, that's not necessarily the case. Plants generally only have an energy conversion efficiency of around 3-6%.
I have more faith in something like this producing solar power than conventional solar cells. Semiconductor solar-cells are too particular to the wavelengths they respond to and their efficiency suffers as a result (although they are getting better with the newer multiple layer devices). After billions of years of tinkering by evolution, the various chlorophyll compounds are pretty efficient at harvesting from broad regions of solar energy and should provide us with a pretty good starting block for designing our own.
Chlorophyll is actually rather particular too. I'm not sure how particular compared to semiconductors, but just a little trivia fact.
so like.. Tree 2.0? would be cool to have trees with power points!
good to see the U.S. putting their mighty weight behind these things, like the battery research too. GG U.S.
So basically we are covering our own asses for the time when all trees are gone?
It's a nice idea, but the fact is photosynthesis it's the way for plants to produces their living energy as we do with eating, sleeping, etc. What are they planning on feeding with the energy produces by this artificial process? is enough to do what exactly?
Good investment by the US government.
... commercialize is the key word... not find a way to implement free energy solutions... if there is no buck to make, nothing gonna happen...
The article is about making FUEL with artificial photosynthesis. Not extracting energy from the process itself. Read the article people.
In the long run, they could be making the building blocks of plastics with something like this. That would relieve us of our dependency on fossil fuels. Makes plastics available unlimited.
Same with gasoline, imagine being able to set solar panels that convert the air and water into gasoline, petrol, hydrogen, fuel.
This is big, very big. Hope they will be able to pull it off.
cool.. if it works, there'll be green cars with internal combustion engines
... commercialize is the key word... not find a way to implement free energy solutions... if there is no buck to make, nothing gonna happen...
That's just the world we live in.
This is very positive news.
It concerns me a little that the same amount of money is being invested in finding alternate power sources as is to pay the salary of one NFL running back for 6 years.
Can we ban this netetrader85 dude please?
Report his posts and they will.
Only problem is, he's posting under multiple names.
It concerns me a little that the same amount of money is being invested in finding alternate power sources as is to pay the salary of one NFL running back for 6 years.
The NFL running back doesn't get paid by the government, he gets paid because most everyone in the US loves football. If everyone wasn't spending money on football in the US he wouldn't get paid that much.
Finally! Clean free energy! Hopefully.
Finally! Clean free energy! Hopefully.
Its all lies!! LIES I TELL U!!!
Hmmm.. Energy from the sun.. I think I've heard of this before, whats it called? Oh, solar power!!
/sarcasm
This seems like a sure way to keep the environmentalist off your back, finally. Here's an outlook of the critique of power sources:
Nuclear power: waste production, radiation
Dams/hydro power: Killing our fish (oh my..)
Wind power: dangerous spinning blades, could hurt our birds
Solar power: Too expensive as a mass energy source.
Am I missing any..? I left out Fossil Fuel, as that one is a little too easy for environmentalists.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Well is not easy cuz photosynthesis happens in two places at once in the leaves, how? cuz nature finds out the answer through quantum physics, the leaves absorb the energy in two places at onces like with quantic particles, and therefore is very hard to now how this could happens...i hope they crack it...cuz once you want to calculate quantic particles they tend to gives impossible results to measure...
In the long run, they could be making the building blocks of plastics with something like this. That would relieve us of our dependency on fossil fuels. Makes plastics available unlimited. Same with gasoline, imagine being able to set solar panels that convert the air and water into gasoline, petrol, hydrogen, fuel.This is big, very big. Hope they will be able to pull it off.
You know that plastic is made from petrol right?
so like.. Tree 2.0? would be cool to have trees with power points!good to see the U.S. putting their mighty weight behind these things, like the battery research too. GG U.S.
Yes trees with outlets! want to go to the park and watch a movie on your laptop but the battery is low? Just plug in to the closest tree and have at it! Now to integrate WiFi into these trees and make a HUGE tree network!
That'll be cool if it works. But initially when I saw that pic, I thought it was a B&W shot of SimCity 4 gone crazy hehe
Actually, that's not necessarily the case. Plants generally only have an energy conversion efficiency of around 3-6%.
You are correct for conversion to biomass (i.e. plant growth). That number also takes into account metabolic usage by the plant. Chlorophyll itself converts about 30% of the collected light into usable energy, the glucose building and consumption process' inefficiencies and plant metabolic needs reduce it to 3-6% net gain. It gets even worse when you try to convert that biomass into energy (e.g. bio-diesel), it ends up reducing it to around 0.3% efficiency. If we can remove the 'plant' part (so to speak) from the bio-fuel process it could go a long way towards improving the process.
By comparison, current semiconductor based transistors have lab efficiencies of 45% or so with multiple junction units under ideal and controlled conditions. However, once you put them in the field, they tend to drop to 8-12% (heating being one of the problems), and that's only for conversion to electricity. Trying to convert that to transportable power (bio-fuel or battery) reduces the efficiency even further.
What would be outstanding is to couple an installation of this technology with existing combustion power plants.
Reduce the carbon emissions from the power plants and produce products that aren't dependent upon petroleum.
Similar projects are being investigated using algae culture technology.
The NFL running back doesn't get paid by the government, he gets paid because most everyone in the US loves football. If everyone wasn't spending money on football in the US he wouldn't get paid that much.
Too true, if only there were long term investment markets that people could buy into as opposed to only being concerned with quarterly earnings and 401k return percentages...
It's sad that people will pay $80 to sit in a seat and watch a football game a few times a year, but would never bother donating to/investing in long term research projects like these, without the government stepping in and funding them through taxes. Face it, if it weren't for the government (and i am a small government nut, don't get me wrong) we would be stuck in the 1800s, technologically speaking.
Every technology we use today, is rooted in some invention made by some guy in a barn 60-200 years ago. His experiments were self-funded and involved one or two assistants.
Nowadays, we spend $122,000,000 to build a barn for 180 people to sit around and publish papers on theoretical technologies that, if developed by said bums, would take 35 years of research to be viable back in the world of 2010.
It kills me how these inefficient organizations are the new face of efficiency these days.
Pax
A further excuse for university professors to blank their students.