Re: Why artificial photosynthesis?

Hi Stephanie,

There are many reasons to study photosynthesis outside of a cell. 
The “simplest” reason is that, by isolating a process from all the other 
millions of things going on, you can tweak one thing at a time and be 
sure that the other processes do not disturb. For instance, many people 
are interested in bettering one particular enzyme in the process called 
Rubisco. Rubisco is the enzyme that actually takes the CO2 molecule and 
makes sugar of it. However it makes “errors” now and then and it would be 
very interesting to make crops that do less such errors: they would grow 
better, be more nutritious etc. But somehow I think this is not what you 
were asking… :-)

As you know, photosynthesis is a process in a plant cell that takes 
energy from the sun, some water and some carbon dioxide in the air to 
produce chemical energy. And the plant is doing a really good job: about 
75% of the energy in the light ends up in chemical form. When we try to 
use solar energy (to make electricity) in solar panels, we usually manage 
to use 10-15% or less. There are some really advanced solar panels that 
manage 20-30%, but they are extremely expensive! They can be used in 
satellites and other things that already cost millions, but you won’t 
find them in your calculator any time soon. To get a good view of the 
proportions:

A: ****************************************
B: ****
C: ************
D: ******************************

A: This represents the energy in the sunlight
B: This is what your calculator manages to get out of it
C: This is the best we can do
D: This is what your "dumb" flower in your pot does!

Imagine that we could produce a plastic film cheaply that could give us 
electricity with the same efficiency as plants produce their chemical 
energy… some holy grail that would be!

I hope this answers your question.

Kind regards,

Erik