Using Photosynthesis to Create Renewable Energy

The search for alternative sources of energy is really coming of age. Well, at least the activity looks promising with the kind of research findings that seem to be sprouting up every now and then. A much deserved result after years of trying to figure out ways to harness energy from “photosynthesis” seems to be paying off - energy from photosynthesis? How does that sound?

The limelight is now on one of the most ancient class of bacteria called Cyanobacteria, in which the process of photosynthesis first evolved, and this was about 3.7 Billion years ago - their characteristic ‘blue’ color comes from that. Plants eventually learned to split water molecules to provide their energy requirements and release oxygen, which in turn helped animals to breathe.

So why are we talking 5 grade science stuff here? You see, when we are pushed real hard, we all go back to fundamentals, don’t we?

For humans, there are bright prospects of being able to tap into the rich possibility of generating energy out of the process of photosynthesis - more specifically, tapping into the photosynthetic reactions of cyanobacteria.

Hydrogen, alcohols and other hydrocarbons can now be synthetically produced from there above mentioned reactions instead of plain carbohydrates. Research has been promising so far with all this energy and hydrocarbons that can be a boon for the Industry. As a gift, we have another track of usage for the same process. On one hand we have been trying to generate energy out of the photosynthetic process of the bacteria and produce all the hydrocarbons that we need and we might just be able to develop the entire process of the photosynthetic process for artificial generation using the same process.

Apart from being touted in some major conferences like ESF (The European Science Foundation), this promises to provide us clean energy in the future. The problem with the other renewable energy sources is that they can’t really be captured at a micro level and be made to drive engines and produce energy in amounts so as to feed the entire planet, the new findings do promise a way to pave way to be able to produce a lot more energy this way.

Presently, only about 1% of the sun’s energy is being captured and converted into biomass by agricultural crops which show a rather skewed ratio to the land being used to the energy being produced. Energy from the photosynthesis reactions from Cyanobacteria promises an energy conversion of at least about 10% from these synthetic processes, notwithstanding mimicking the regenerating process of the plants which can provide great strides in the field of agriculture and botanical sciences.