Fuel: British researchers develop artificial leaves to produce clean fuel from sunlight
Tests they conducted on the River Cam in eastern England showed they can convert sunlight into fuel - just as plant leaves do, researchers say.
Researchers have developed floating "artificial leaves" that can produce clean fuels from sunlight and water.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge said they were inspired by the ultra-thin and resilient artificial leaves from the process of photosynthesis in which plant leaves convert sunlight into food.
The researchers pointed out that tests conducted on the River Cam in eastern England showed that these artificial leaves can convert sunlight into fuel - just as plant leaves do in the process of photosynthesis.
Many hope to benefit from this discovery in reducing the use of fossil fuels in the navigation and water transport industry.
The University of Cambridge said it was the first time that clean fuels had been produced on water. The university felt that the experience could be benefited from on a larger scale in the waterways, in the ports or even in the seas.
This would help reduce the global navigation industry's dependence on fossil fuels - something that a research team led by Professor Erwin Reisner of the University of Cambridge has been studying for years.
In 2019, a team of researchers developed a synthetic paper, but it contained glass materials and a moisture-proof coating that left it looking thick and bulky.
But in these recent developments, researchers have thinned the size of the synthetic leaf so that it floats and does not sink.
"Synthetic papers can greatly reduce the cost of producing sustainable fuels," says Virgil Andre, a research chemistry researcher at Cambridge. "But because they are heavy and brittle, they are difficult to mass-produce, as well as difficult to transport."
Irwin Risner, a Cambridge University researcher, says that 'reducing the size of papers' was taken into account not to affect their performance.
“We wanted to see to what extent we could reduce the size of this synthetic leaf without affecting its performance,” says Prof. Reisner. “If we can reduce its weight enough to float on the surface of the water, then we have opened a new door to benefit from these synthetic papers.”
The research has received support from several bodies including the European Research Council, the Cambridge Trust, the Winton Program for Sustainability Physics, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
green hydrogen
In light of climate change and the global energy crisis, high hopes are placed on scientific research to produce clean and sustainable energy alternatives instead of the fossil fuels on which the transport industry, whether land, sea or air, depends heavily.
In light of what the war in Ukraine revealed about the need to search for an alternative to Russian gas, many governments saw a need to diversify energy sources as well as decarbonize them.
Companies are working on a new type of carbon-free fuel known as "green hydrogen". Green is not a description of the color of the gas that may become liquefied, but it means that its production will not pollute the environment with harmful emissions.
Green hydrogen is produced from water, by separating hydrogen molecules from oxygen molecules through the use of electricity generated from renewable energy sources.
Hydrogen can store vast amounts of energy, replacing natural gas in industrial processes and powering fuel cells in trucks, trains, ships or planes that produce only potable water vapor.
plant simulation
Inspired by the ability of plants to benefit from sunlight, and in a simulation of the process of photosynthesis, a team of British and American researchers recently made a scientific breakthrough in the field of genes that increase the ability of agricultural crops to benefit from sunlight.
The researchers hope that this scientific breakthrough will help alleviate the severity of the food crisis, especially with the increase in the number of people affected by food shortages, and in light of what expectations indicate an urgent need for a change in the levels of food supply.
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