By borrowing nature’s blueprints for photosynthesis, Cornell bioengineers have found a way to efficiently absorb and store large-scale, low-cost renewable energy from the sun – while sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide to use later as a biofuel.
By borrowing nature’s blueprints for photosynthesis, Cornell bioengineers have found a way to efficiently absorb and store large-scale, low-cost renewable energy from the sun – while sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide to use later as a biofuel.
The key: Let bioengineered microbes do all the work.
Buz Barstow, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and doctoral candidate Farshid Salimijazi have assembled theoretical solutions and models that calculate efficiency in microbes, which could take in electricity and store carbon dioxide at least five times more efficiently than photosynthesis, the process by which plants turn sunlight into chemical energy.
“Soon, we will be living in a world with plentiful renewable electricity,” Barstow said. “But in order to bring the bountiful energy to the grid, we will need energy storage with a capacity thousands of times greater than we have today.”
The research, “Constraints on the Efficiency of Engineered Electromicrobial Production,” was published in October in the journal Joule. Salimijazi is lead author.
Read more at: Cornell University
