
Scientists pioneer a new way to turn sunlight into fuel - kjeetgill
https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/scientists-pioneer-new-way-turn-sunlight-fuel
======
gns24
The quote “Natural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved
merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed –
around 1-2 per cent of what it could potentially convert and store” makes no
sense to me; plants are usually in massive competition for access to light, so
in what sense is there no need for it to be more efficient?

~~~
hinkley
In full sun a plant can absorb far more light than it can handle. Apparently
one of the little tricks of chloroplasts is how they shunt that power away
without sustaining damage. Could we just do something with that power?

It’s a bit like turning the rotor blades when the wind is too high to keep the
thing from ripping itself apart.

But imagine if you could make a turbine that generated tons more electricity
in a gale force wind. Think what you could do with that much concentrated
power.

~~~
SuoDuanDao
I've not been able to kill the idea of a plant that uses excess energy to
create hydrogen which it uses to float its seeds far and yonder. Didn't know
that there's already a lot of excess energy that could be used for such a
project, though I suspect the knowledge of genegeneering needed to make it
happen is a ways off still.

~~~
sofon
That's such a neat idea. I wonder why floating plants don't already exist. I'm
also surprised that I've not seen it in Scifi.

~~~
adrianN
How would an evolutionary pathway to floating look like?

~~~
stephengillie
Like tumbleweeds as air plants[∆], floating around like helium-filled beach
balls, living off the humidity and occasional puddle or storm.

One problem with floating plants is that dirt and water are heavy.

[∆][https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillandsia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillandsia)

------
Gys
'...to achieve unassisted solar-driven water-splitting.' (into water and
hydrogen)

'Their method also managed to achieve more efficient absorption of solar light
than natural photosynthesis.'

~~~
village-idiot
I wonder how much more efficient.

This process would have benefits where high density energy is needed, hydrogen
powered container ships being a popular plan of mine.

But if you don’t have space constraints, involving a hydrogen fuel cell only
adds inefficiencies. Most fuel cells are in the 64-80% efficiency range, which
the theoretical max being 84%. This might be worse off than the
PV->battery->use pipeline that we’re used to.

------
ksec
Off Topic: ( A question I have in my head for a long long time )

What are the purpose of these PR article from University to other Academic
Science magazines? If it was to attract investors or sponsorship, surely
companies and individual have other means of access to how to invest or not,
and not looking at every magazine / papers / Website announcement.

There are countless battery "breakthrough" and we all know they are at least
another 5 years away from commercialise, or in most cases, never. Apart from
inner nerds wanted to know, what value do they provide? What purpose do they
serve?

~~~
conjectures
Universities are always under pressure to show impact. They need artifacts to
show to funders (govt ministers) and demonstrate relevance. The explanation
'our lab turned water into fuel using algae' is generally intelligible, while
the Nature reference lends a credibility the intended lay audience isn't
intended to cash.

Also, there is some element of just wanting people to be aware of cool stuff
that got done.

Universities are primarily there to produce scientific breakthroughs, not
bring technologies to market. The value is in undertaking high risk research.

------
keypress
I'd love to know more. If this is as simple as having liquid water pumped
through tubing with algae this sounds great. How natural a system can this be?
How pure does the water have to be?

