The scientific community is striving to find ways to create unlimited energy. A breakthrough discovery in harnessing how plants generate energy could be a “lifeline” for humanity.
From lunar crystals to molecules that defy the laws of physics, humans are exploring every avenue to fill the looming energy deficit that threatens us in the near future.
Now, with the results of a new study on how plants produce energy, we may have found a way to compensate for this shortfall by harnessing artificial photosynthesis.
Plants rely on a system called photosynthesis to generate energy and food. Scientists hope we can mimic this process to create an infinite energy source (Photo: scimmery1/Adobe).
In this groundbreaking research, scientists successfully simulated the natural process of photosynthesis to produce methane gas. This energy-rich fuel only requires water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight.
According to the researchers, if scaled up, this new process would allow us to use artificial photosynthesis instead of solar panels as a clean, unlimited energy source that humanity has been seeking for decades.
Professor Kazunari Domen of the University of Tokyo, Japan, leads the research team. He and his colleagues have successfully experimented with a system that separates water into hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight.
From there, they hope to further develop this process to more closely mimic the system plants use, absorbing carbon dioxide and storing solar energy in methane gas. Essentially, this can be understood as an artificial photosynthesis version.
This system is very similar to solar panels. However, instead of merely harnessing and storing solar energy, the research team incorporated a photosynthetic system that plants rely on to create more stored energy.
Of course, scaling up the system to meet the energy demands of a city will require overcoming various challenges to achieve practical feasibility.
Since this system relies on methane gas to store solar energy, it is essential to create a non-leakage system. If the system leaks, it will contribute to increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, which is already a pressing issue threatening our planet, causing climate change and global warming.
Therefore, if this groundbreaking invention is researched further with measures to ensure feasibility and safety, we can be optimistic about a significantly positive solution to global energy security challenges.
