Production of photocurrent and hydrogen gas from intact plant leaves

Shlosberg, Yaniv; Meirovitch, M.; Yehezkeli, Omer; Schuster, Gadi; Adir, Noam

doi:10.1101/2021.09.19.460952

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 100 publications

(146 reference statements)

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“…Unlike cyanobacteria, microalgae, and seaweeds that are present in liquid medium, the leaves and stems of most terrestrial plants are positioned in the air. When placed in the electrolyte solution of the BPEC and under solar illumination, the leaves produce high photocurrent densities of ~10 mA/cm 2 , without the addition of an exogenous mediator ( Hubenova and Mitov, 2012 ; Hubenova et al, 2018 ; Shlosberg et al, 2022c ). The amount of produced electricity is largely dependent on the texture of the leaf.…”

Section: Electricity Can Be Harvested From Terrestrial Plants Of Diff...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike flat leaves, whose electricity production in the BPEC derives from the release of redox-active molecules outside of the leaf and throughout the membranes and cell wall barriers, most desert plants have a thick cuticle that does not allow the trafficking of materials outside the cells. To produce electricity, it is possible to remove the external layer of the plant ( Shlosberg et al, 2022c ). In addition, the non-flat and thick architecture allows the insertion of bulk electrodes into the leaves ( Figure 4 ).…”

Section: Electricity Can Be Harvested From Terrestrial Plants Of Diff...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Harnessing photosynthesis to produce electricity using cyanobacteria, green algae, seaweeds and plants

2022

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The conversion of solar energy into electrical current by photosynthetic organisms has the potential to produce clean energy. Life on earth depends on photosynthesis, the major mechanism for biological conversion of light energy into chemical energy. Indeed, billions of years of evolution and adaptation to extreme environmental habitats have resulted in highly efficient light-harvesting and photochemical systems in the photosynthetic organisms that can be found in almost every ecological habitat of our world. In harnessing photosynthesis to produce green energy, the native photosynthetic system is interfaced with electrodes and electron mediators to yield bio-photoelectrochemical cells (BPECs) that transform light energy into electrical power. BPECs utilizing plants, seaweeds, unicellular photosynthetic microorganisms, thylakoid membranes or purified complexes, have been studied in attempts to construct efficient and non-polluting BPECs to produce electricity or hydrogen for use as green energy. The high efficiency of photosynthetic light-harvesting and energy production in the mostly unpolluting processes that make use of water and CO2 and produce oxygen beckons us to develop this approach. On the other hand, the need to use physiological conditions, the sensitivity to photoinhibition as well as other abiotic stresses, and the requirement to extract electrons from the system are challenging. In this review, we describe the principles and methods of the different kinds of BPECs that use natural photosynthesis, with an emphasis on BPECs containing living oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. We start with a brief summary of BPECs that use purified photosynthetic complexes. This strategy has produced high-efficiency BPECs. However, the lifetimes of operation of these BPECs are limited, and the preparation is laborious and expensive. We then describe the use of thylakoid membranes in BPECs which requires less effort and usually produces high currents but still suffers from the lack of ability to self-repair damage caused by photoinhibition. This obstacle of the utilization of photosynthetic systems can be significantly reduced by using intact living organisms in the BPEC. We thus describe here progress in developing BPECs that make use of cyanobacteria, green algae, seaweeds and higher plants. Finally, we discuss the future challenges of producing high and longtime operating BPECs for practical use.

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Section: Electricity Can Be Harvested From Terrestrial Plants Of Diff...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Electricity Can Be Harvested From Terrestrial Plants Of Diff...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing photosynthesis to produce electricity using cyanobacteria, green algae, seaweeds and plants

2022

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“…These are limited by the tolerance of the organisms to the electrochemical environment. A big advantage for using marine organisms derives from their ability to tolerate high salinity, which can significantly enhance the current production when used as the electrolyte of the BPEC [28][29][30] . We wished to study the ability of various intact cyanobacterial cells to produce photocurrent in their cultivation media (that represents their natural habitat environment).…”

Section: Intact Te Produces More Current Than Other Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another eco-friendly energy solution that was evolved from MFCs is the bio-photo electrochemical cell. This approach integrates whole photosynthetic organisms such as plants' green tissues, 28 seaweeds 29 , microalgae 30 , and cyanobacteria [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] with bio-electrochemical cells to produce photocurrent. The electron source in BPECs originates from the respiration and photosynthetic pathway.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trichodesmium Erythraeum produces a higher photocurrent than other cyanobacterial species in bio-photo electrochemical cells

Shlosberg

Spungin

Holland

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In recent years, the increase in world energy consumption, and the worries from potential future disasters that may derive from climate change have inspired the motivation to develop renewable energy technologies. One of the promising methods is the utilization of whole bacterial cells to produce photocurrent in a bio-photo electrochemical cell (BPEC). The photocurrent derives from the photosynthesis pathway, while the redox couple NADP+/NADPH perform cyclic electron mediation between photosystem I inside the cells, and the anode. Over the years, various cyanobacterial species were utilized in diverse BPECs setups, while the photocurrent was enhanced by the addition of natural electron mediators such as NAD+, NADP+, Cytochrome C, Vitamin B1, and the artificial mediator potassium ferricyanide. The cyanobacterium Trichodesmium Erythraeum (Te) is a marine species that consist of high content of Phycocyanin and Phycoerythrin pigments that play a major role in photosynthesis enhancement. In this work, we produce for the first-time photocurrent from Te. We apply 2D-fluorescence measurements to detect its NADPH secretion and show that its photocurrent production is enhanced as a function of increasing electrolyte salinity. Finally, we produce photocurrent from additional cyanobacterial species: Synechocystis sp. PCC6803, Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, Acaryochloris marina MBIC 11017, and Spirulina, using their cultivation medium as electrolytes in the BPEC. We show that TE produces a photocurrent intensity that is significantly greater than all other species with and without the addition of exogenous electron mediators. The utilization of TE may pave the way toward the establishment of marine clean energy technologies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trichodesmium erythraeum produces a higher photocurrent than other cyanobacterial species in bio-photo electrochemical cells

Shlosberg

Spungin

Schuster

et al. 2022

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics

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Production of photocurrent and hydrogen gas from intact plant leaves

Cited by 5 publications

References 100 publications

Harnessing photosynthesis to produce electricity using cyanobacteria, green algae, seaweeds and plants

Harnessing photosynthesis to produce electricity using cyanobacteria, green algae, seaweeds and plants

Trichodesmium Erythraeum produces a higher photocurrent than other cyanobacterial species in bio-photo electrochemical cells

Trichodesmium erythraeum produces a higher photocurrent than other cyanobacterial species in bio-photo electrochemical cells

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