New Artificial Photosynthesis Leaves Algae Biofuels Foaming At The Mouth

Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by Ross in New Technologies

Frog foam could provide the answer to the ultimate biofuels, as well as the promise of other chemical feedstocks via artificial photosynthesis.

First there was wheat and corn biofuels, along with controversy over threatened food supplies and question marks over their carbon-neutrality. Second generation biofuels from non-food crops are still starting to emerge and gain funding (the Carbon Trust today announced two more major grants for waste biomass pyrolysis), and then along came the concept of algae biofuels to trump them all, promising higher yields using unusable environments, waste products and salt water.

Now research from the University of Cincinnati has found that a enzyme cocktail foam can provide the perfect platform for artificial photosynthesis, allowing much greater light and air exposure to the active photosynthetic surfaces than in crop or algae biofuel systems. The inspiration for this new innovation?

The Tungara frog.

The frog is resident to Central and South America, and is famous for creating nests of foam which surround its eggs for weeks whilst they hatch into tadpoles, protecting them from drying out, from aquatic predators and from disease. This foam inspired the photosynthetic system examined by the researchers, who used a mixture of plant, bacterial, frog and fungal enzymes to achieve their results.

Talking about the benefits of the new approach over existing biofuel strategies, Professor David Wendell said:

The advantage for our system compared to plants and algae is that all of the captured solar energy is converted to sugars, whereas these organisms must divert a great deal of energy to other functions to maintain life and reproduce. Our foam also uses no soil, so food production would not be interrupted, and it can be used in highly enriched carbon dioxide environments, like the exhaust from coal-burning power plants, unlike many natural photosynthetic systems.

In natural plant systems, too much carbon dioxide shuts down photosynthesis, but ours does not have this limitation due to the bacterial-based photo-capture strategy.

The next steps for pursuing the technology for the creation of biofuels will be to demonstrate that the technology scales up successfully to be used in industrial concentrated carbon dioxide applications such as carbon capture for coal power stations. This will be no mean feat, as part of the challenge will require ensuring that the yield gains over algae biofuels due to not using the sugars for other purposes are not lost from creation and regeneration of the enzyme mixture.

The system also holds promise for alternative-product artificial photosynthesis: by switching enzymes in the mixture for other which produce different hydrocarbon products, the system could be used as the first efficient replacement for petrochemical feedstocks for pharmaceuticals without the need for genetically engineered organisms.

Image of out-of-focus bubbly foam by Nina Matthews Photography @ Flickr