Scientists Achieve Photosynthesis Without Sunlight

A team of biologists and engineers at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Delaware created an artificial photosynthesis system as a way of brainstorming solutions to increasing global food demand. While organic photosynthesis has always been an obvious and integral step in generating produce, it’s “inefficient,” according to the scientists. Meanwhile, their artificial photosynthesis system is capable of producing yields up to 18 times quicker than nature.

The system uses a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, water, and electricity into acetate. Plants can then consume the acetate in the dark, where they turn the substance into energy. Sunlight is thus removed from the process—except for an ironic implementation that uses solar panels to power the electrolyzer responsible for the conversion into acetate.

The scientists’ experiment tested the growth of yeast, mushroom-producing fungus, and photosynthetic green algae in the darkness-encompassed acetate medium. They found that algae could grow four times as quickly using their technology, while yeast (which is usually produced by extracting sugar from corn) could be cultivated 18 times as efficiently. The team also looked into someday using the system to grow lettuce, rice, cowpea, green pea, canola, tomatoes, and peppers, though details surrounding specific experiments involving these plants are limited.

“We found that a wide range of crops could take the acetate we provided and build it into the major molecular building blocks an organism needs to grow and thrive,” said Marcus Harland-Dunaway, a doctoral candidate and co-lead author of the study, in a UC Riverside press release. “With some breeding and engineering that we are currently working on we might be able to grow crops with acetate as an extra energy source to boost crop yields.”

The artificial photosynthesis system might be one piece of a larger, modern agriculture puzzle. Private entities like Iron Ox, which we covered last month, are working to produce fruits, vegetables, and herbs indoors as the greenhouse gasses produced by traditional agriculture become impossible to ignore. Similar technologies could also be used to grow food in space.

“Using artificial photosynthesis approaches to produce food could be a paradigm shift for how we feed people,” said corresponding study author Robert Jinkerson, a UC Riverside assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering. “By increasing the efficiency of food production, less land is needed, lessening the impact agriculture has on the environment. And for agriculture in non-traditional environments, like outer space, the increased energy efficiency could help feed more crew members with less inputs.”

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All that oxygen you enjoy breathing doesn't just appear magically in the atmosphere. Earth is livable because plants around the globe pump out oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, and some of them become tasty food crops in addition. However, photosynthesis isn't perfect despite many eons of evolutionary refinement.