World Hunger News: Bionic Leaf That Could Help End World Hunger
Summary:
The 'bionic leaf' that could help end world hunger: Incredible system turns sunlight into fertilizer
The Harvard developed system mimics photosynthesis to produce fertilizer.
Radishes fed by the bionic leaf weighed 1.5 times more than control crops.
The device could help fuel crop growth in developing countries.
PUBLISHED: 17:11 BST, 3 April 2017 / http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Article:
A new 'green revolution' could be brought about by a radical new leaf which builds on nature - and surpasses it.
The bionic leaf is an artificial system that mimics the process of photosynthesis -which is used by plants to produce fuel - to create fertilizer.
The device could one day be used to help boost crop yields in developing countries and help tackle world hunger.
Harvard University has created a bionic leaf that produces fertilizer using only bacteria, sunlight, water and air. The radishes on the right were grown with the help of the fertilizer and are 1.5 times larger than their natural counterparts (pictured left)
THE BIONIC LEAF
This device is based on an artificial leaf developed by a leading researcher in biochemistry, Dr Daniel Nocera.
The artificial leaf mimics a natural leaf by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen when exposed to sunlight. The bionic leaf then introduces the bacteria Ralstonia eutropha to the process.
The bacteria consumes hydrogen and takes carbon dioxide out of the air and turns it into liquid fertilizer. Dr Nocera envisages the bionic leaf be being installed directly into the soil where the crops are being grown.
Harvard University researchers are hoping to help avert a global food crisis, brought on by booming populations around the world.
And they believe that their creation - which uses bacteria, sunlight, water and air to make fertilizer in the very soil where crops are grown - could help spur the next agricultural revolution.
The team is led by Dr Daniel Nocera, a leading researcher in biochemistry who is known for his work on the artificial leaf.
His previous research led to the development of the bionic leaf device, which the Harvard team say provides greater growth and more fuel than natural photosynthesis. They came to this conclusion by measuring the amount of ammonia the system produces.
But the real proof is in the radishes they have produced over five crop cycles, grown with fertilizer created using only bacteria, sunlight, water and air.
Vegetables which were fed fertilizer produced by the bionic leaf weighed 150 per cent more than control crops. The next step is to boost the system's production rate, so that one day farmers in India or sub-Saharan Africa can use the technology to produce their own fertilizer.
'When you have a large centralised process and a massive infrastructure, you can easily make and deliver fertilizer,' Dr Nocera said. 'But if I said that now you've got to do it in a village in India onsite with dirty water -- forget it. 'Poorer countries in the emerging world don't always have the resources to do this.
'We should be thinking of a distributed system because that's where it's really needed.' The team will present the work today at the 253rd meeting of the American Chemical Society. Scientist explains his research into bionic fuel-producing leaf Dr Nocera's artificial leaf is a device that mimics a natural leaf by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen when exposed to sunlight.
The bionic leaf then introduces the bacteria Ralstonia eutropha to the process. The bacteria consumes hydrogen and takes carbon dioxide out of the air and turns it into liquid fertilizer.
To ensure this works, his team switched the previous device's nickel-molybdenum-zinc catalyst - which was poisonous to the microbes - with a bacteria-friendly alloy of cobalt and phosphorus. 'The fuels were just the first step,' Dr Nocera added.
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