Eco Factor: Using sunlight to split water into its constituent molecules.
A team of researchers at MIT have developed a process to replicate the natural process of photosynthesis in plants by engineering the M13 bacterial virus that can split water into its constituent molecules that is hydrogen and oxygen using abundant solar energy. The team hopes that the process can further be used to create hydrogen efficiently from water, which can later be used to produce electricity.
The process is based on photosynthesis where chlorophyll captures sunlight while catalysts promote the water-splitting reaction. In this case, the bacterial virus acts as the chlorophyll by capturing sunlight and then transfers the energy down its length, acting like a wire. The process definitely needs some improvement before it can be commercially used for practical energy conversion.
To be cost-competitive, the process should be at least 10 times more efficient that natural photosynthesis and should be able to repeat the reaction almost indefinitely.
Via: Gizmag
