Scientists Create Hybrid Between Living Organism, Bio Battery to Improve Green Energy

The search for long-term energy has become a major concern for civilization. Researchers are tapping into natural mechanisms that have given plants and many animal forms with their energy source for billions of years to fulfill ever-increasing energy needs without further hurting the global environment.

The process of photosynthesis converts radiant light energy into chemical energy, which is their secret.

Christine Lewis and her ASU colleagues describe a patented hybrid device that is part living organism, part bio battery, capable of producing stored energy by increasing energy flow under light conditions where natural photosynthesis usually is inhibited in a new study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

E. coli can Improve Photosynthesis with the Use of the Rubisco Enzyme — Scientists have found that E. coli can improve photosynthesis, engineering a key Rubisco enzyme from plants and putting it inside Escherichia coli bacteria to make an optimum environment for quickening the photosynthetic process. Pexels

Innovative Technology

The advent of such technologies offers a green avenue to the manufacturing of a broad range of valuable goods, including transportation fuels, agrochemicals, medicines, cosmetics, polymers, and specialized chemicals, as well as human and animal supplements.

According to Science Daily, the latest research indicates that modified photosynthetic germs, in this case, cyanobacteria, can be given electrons from an external source and used to fuel chemical processes that might be used for human uses in the future. Microbial electro photosynthesis, or MEPS, is the name given to this method by researchers.

"We're working on linking artificial energy with natural photosynthesis by tapping into the photosynthetic electron transport network," Lewis explains. "The goal of the research is to be able to turn photosynthesis on and off at whim, eventually improving its efficiency and producing steady energy products."

Lewis works at ASU's School of Molecular Sciences, the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery (CASD), and the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology (EB) (SMS).

Photosynthesis 2.0

Water, sunshine, and CO2 are the only three essential elements in natural photosynthesis. Photosynthetic cells produce glucose, which is subsequently transformed into ATP, the cell's primary energy currency.

When destructive oxygen radical species are formed with high-intensity light, the process produces oxygen as a respiratory byproduct, but this can be harmful to the photosynthetic process.

While photosynthesis is excellent for meeting the energy demands of plants and other photosynthetic creatures, the pace at which light is transformed into useable chemical energy is far too slow to meet today's human energy requirements. Researchers have been looking for ways to harness natural photosynthesis while also enhancing it to provide carbon-neutral energy solutions for a long time.

Collaboration

There are numerous major limiting variables in terms of energy conversion efficiency in natural photosynthesis. For starters, photosynthetic organisms only utilize a limited percentage of the sun's light spectrum, notably visible red light. Second, carbon fixation occurs at a too sluggish pace for practical purposes. It must be increased by increasing the pace at which electrons move along the transport chain.

Finally, photosynthetic organisms can only handle a certain number of sun-excited electrons at any one moment. If too many electrons are injected into the electron transport chain at once, the mechanism might shut down owing to light damage, rendering the cell inoperable or fatal.

The photosystem II (PSII) protein complex, a crucial component in the cell's electron transport mechanism, is the primary cause of this energy efficiency constraint.

The MEPS system is detailed in the latest article employing a genetically engineered cyanobacterium connected to an external cathode. The cyanobacteria utilized were reengineered in co-author Wim Vermaas' lab to perform photosynthetic electron cycling without using a photosystem II component.

Electrons are shuttled from the device's cathode into the cyanobacterium's electron transport chain with the aid of chemical mediators. Because photosystem II, which is light-sensitive, has been removed, the photosynthetic activity now takes place via a different pathway, namely photosystem I.

The findings confirmed that photosynthesis could be completed with an external source of electrons feeding the electron transport chain and in the presence of exceptionally high-intensity light.

The MEPS system might employ commercially available solar cells to deliver the external electrons required to power photosynthetic processes. Photovoltaics might provide electrons with wavelengths ranging from zero to thousands of nanometers, allowing for a significantly larger range of light gathering than natural photosynthesis.