New technology out of the University of Georgia allows energy generated
by plants through photosynthesis to be captured before the plants can
make use of it.
Millions of years have evolution has resulted in plants being the
most efficient harvesters of solar energy on the planet. Much research
is underway into ways to artificially mimic photosynthesis in devices
like artificial leaves,
but researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) are working on a
different approach that gives new meaning to the term “power plant.”
Their technology harvests energy generated through photosynthesis before
the plants can make use of it, allowing the energy to instead be used
to run low-powered electrical devices.
Photosynthesis turns light energy into chemical energy by splitting
water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen. This process produces electrons
that help create sugars that the plant uses to fuel growth and
reproduction. A team led by Ramaraja Ramasamy, assistant professor in
the UGA College of Engineering, is developing technology that would
interrupt the photosynthesis process and capture the electrons before
the plant puts them to use creating sugars.
The technology involves interrupting the pathways along which the
electrons flow by manipulating the proteins contained in thylakoids.
Thylakoids are membrane-bound compartments at the site of the light
reactions of photosynthesis that are responsible for capturing and
storing energy from sunlight.
Read more here: http://www.gizmag.com/capturing-plant-photosynthesis-energy/27458/
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