Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T05:36:58.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Engineered and Artificial Photosynthesis: Human Ingenuity Enters the Game

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Devens Gust
Affiliation:
Arizona State University, USA
David Kramer
Affiliation:
Washington State University, USA
Ana Moore
Affiliation:
Arizona State University, USA
Thomas A. Moore
Affiliation:
Arizona State University, USA
Wim Vermaas
Affiliation:
Arizona State University, USA

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

All oxygen-dependent life depends on photosynthesis. In addition to breathing the oxygen produced by photosynthesis, humans have been harnessing energy from photosynthesis for millennia. Since the beginning of human societal structures, human needs have driven the evolution of agricultural production, and they continue to do so. Recently, it has been suggested that agriculture can contribute substantially to human technological (nonnutritional) energy needs. This possibility raises concern because the projections of human energy needs argue convincingly that without large increases in energy conversion effciency (ECE), land-grown biofuel production and food production will compete for land, a largely untenable compromise given the current nutritional status of the world's underdeveloped societies.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

References

1.Gust, D., Moore, T.A., Moore, A.L., Acc. Chem. Res. 34, 40 (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Gust, D., Moore, T., Moore, A., in Artificial Photosynthesis, Collings, A.F., Critchley, C., Eds. (Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 2005), p. 187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Hambourger, M., Liddell, P., Gust, D., Moore, A.L., Moore, T.A., Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 6, 431 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Long, S.P., Zhu, X.-G., Naidu, S.L., Ort, D.R., Plant Cell Environ. 29, 315 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Huber, G.W., Iborra, S., Corma, A., Chem. Rev. 106, 4044 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Bard, A.J., Fox, M.A., Acc. Chem. Res. 28, 141 (1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Archer, M.D., Bolton, J.R., J. Phys. Chem. 94, 8028 (1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Bryant, D.A., Frigaard, N.-U., Trends Microbiol. 14, 488 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Lovley, D.R., Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 4, 497 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Grätzel, M., Inorg. Chem. 44, 6841 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Chisti, Y., Biotechnol. Adv. 25, 294 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Searchinger, T., Heimlich, R., Houghton, R.A., Dong, F., Elobeid, A., Fabiosa, J., Tokgoz, S., Hayes, D., Yu, T.-H., Science, February 7, 2008 (10.1126/science.1151861).Google Scholar
13.Fargione, J., Hill, J., Tilman, D., Polasky, S., Hawthorne, P., Science, February 7, 2008 (10.1126/science.1152747).Google Scholar
14.Duke, J.A., Handbook of Energy Crops (1983), www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/dukeindex.html (accessed January 2008).Google Scholar
15.Pulz, O., “Performance Summary Report: Evaluation of GreenFuel's 3D Matrix Algae Growth Engineering Scale Unit” (APS Red Hawk Power Plant, AZ, June-July 2007), www.greenfuelonline.com/gf_fles/Performance%20Summary%20Report.pdf (accessed January 2008).Google Scholar