Artificial Photosynthesis Would Unify the Electricity-Carbohydrate-Hydrogen Cycle for Sustainability

Yi-Heng Percival Zhang¹

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1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Document Type:

Manuscript

Date:

Received 20 January 2010 18:49 UTC; Posted 20 January 2010

Subjects:

Biotechnology, Chemistry, Ecology, Earth & Environment

Tags:

• artificial photosynthesis
• biofuels
• cell-free synthetic biology
• climate change
• CO2 fixation
• electricity storage
• food production
• hydrogen
• ecosystem for space travel
• water conservation

Abstract:

Sustainable development requires balanced integration of four basic human needs – air (O2/CO2), water, food, and energy. To solve key challenges, such as CO2 fixation, electricity storage, food production, transportation fuel production, water conservation or maintaining an ecosystem for space travel, we wish to suggest the electricity-carbohydrate-hydrogen (ECHo) cycle, where electricity is a universal energy carrier, hydrogen is a clean electricity carrier, and carbohydrate is a high-energy density hydrogen (14.8 H2 mass% or 11-14 MJ electricity output/kg)carrier plus a food and feed source. Each element of this cycle can be converted to the other reversibly & efficiently depending on resource availability, needs, and costs. In order to implement such cycle, here we propose to fix carbon dioxide by electricity or hydrogen to carbohydrate (starch) plus ethanol by cell-free synthetic biology approaches. According to knowledge in the literature, the proposed artificial photosynthesis must be operative. Therefore, collaborations are urgently needed to solve several technological bottlenecks before large-scale implementation.

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This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

How to cite this document:

Zhang, Yi-Heng Percival. Artificial Photosynthesis Would Unify the Electricity-Carbohydrate-Hydrogen Cycle for Sustainability. Available from Nature Precedings <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2010.4167.1> (2010)

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