BIONIC LEAF TURNS SUNLIGHT INTO LIQUID FUEL

Scientists have created a system that uses solar energy to split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels. The system can convert solar energy to biomass with 10 percent efficiency, far above the 1 percent seen in the fastest-growing plants.

The days of drilling into the ground in the search for fuel may be numbered, because if Daniel Nocera has his way, it'll just be a matter of looking for sunny skies.

Nocera, the Professor of Energy at Harvard University, and Pamela Silver, the Elliott T. and Onie H. Adams, Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, have co-created a system that uses solar energy to split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels.

Nocera said the system is already effective enough to consider possible commercial applications but within a different model for technology translation to bring this technology to the developing world as well."

"If you think about it, photosynthesis is amazing," he said. "It takes sunlight, water and air. That's exactly what we did, but we do it significantly better, because we turn all that energy into a fuel."

Thanks to: sciencedaily.com