Scientists are looking to harness and adapt the process of turning water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight into oxygen and energy in order to produce food, fuel, and more besides.
The artificial photosynthesis technique uses a two step process to turn carbon dioxide, water, and electricity generated by solar panels into acetate. Plants can use this to grow.
The system that the researchers have designed here is intended to mimic the photosynthesis that happens in nature, but to actually improve on it, because in plants only a small portion of the sunlight's energy is actually turned into plant biomass.
An outline of the researchers' technique. (Hann et al, Nature Food 2022)
Robert Jinkerson is a chemical and environmental engineer at the University of California.
In order to act as a growth driver for food- producing organisms, the researchers had to modify the electricity conversion device to increase the amount of acetate and decrease the amount of salt.
Green algae, yeast, and mycelium, which produce mushrooms, were shown to be supported by the team's further experiments. The method used to produce algae is four times more efficient than natural photosynthesis.
The scientists showed that crops like cowpea, tomato, tobacco, rice, canola, and green pea could be grown without sunlight. The process could be used in other ways.
Plants growing in complete darkness in an acetate medium. (Marcus Harland-Dunaway/UCR)
A wide range of crops could take the acetate we provided and build it into the major building blocks an organisms needs to grow and thrive.
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.
The process outlined here is so impressive that it is one of the winners of the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge, a showcase of emerging tech that could one day help in growing food in space.
It's not the only place where a drastic change in food production is possible. Extreme temperatures and other threats to standard agricultural practices are becoming more common because of the climate crisis.
While processes like this aren't an excuse not to tackle climate change, they could help make food production more resilient and crops could be grown in more places.
Jinkerson believes that using artificial photosynthesis approaches to produce food could be a paradigm shift. Less land is needed in order to increase the efficiency of food production.
Increased energy efficiency could help feed more crew members with less inputs.
The research was published in a journal.
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