Comparing Photosynthetic and Photovoltaic Efficiencies and Recognizing the Potential for Improvement

Journal Article · Thu May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1200165· OSTI ID:1065425

Blankenship, Robert E. ^[1]; Tiede, David ^[2]; Barber, James ^[3]; Brudvig, Gary W. ^[4]; Fleming, Graham R. ^[5]; Ghirardi, Maria ^[6]; Gunner, M. R. ^[7]; Junge, Wolfgang ^[8]; Kramer, David M. ^[9]; Melis, Anastasios ^[10]; Moore, Thomas A. ^[11]; Moser, Christopher C. ^[12]; Nocera, Daniel G. ^[13]; Nozik, Arthur J. ^[14]; Ort, Donald R. ^[15]; Parson, William W. ^[16]; Prince, Roger C. ^[17]; Sayre, Richard ^[18]

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1. Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
2. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
3. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom); Polytechnic of Turin (Italy)
4. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
5. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
6. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
7. City College of New York, NY (United States)
8. Univ. of Osnabrueck (Germany)
9. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). DOE Plant Research Lab.
10. Univ. of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA (United States)
11. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (United States)
12. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
13. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States)
14. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
15. US Dept. of Agriculture Research Service, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)
16. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
17. ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences, Annandale, NJ (United States)
18. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO (United States)

Comparing photosynthetic and photovoltaic efficiencies is not a simple issue. Although both processes harvest the energy in sunlight, they operate in distinctly different ways and produce different types of products: biomass or chemical fuels in the case of natural photosynthesis and nonstored electrical current in the case of photovoltaics. In order to find common ground for evaluating energy-conversion efficiency, we compare natural photosynthesis with present technologies for photovoltaic-driven electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen. Photovoltaic-driven electrolysis is the more efficient process when measured on an annual basis, yet short-term yields for photosynthetic conversion under optimal conditions come within a factor of 2 or 3 of the photovoltaic benchmark. We consider opportunities in which the frontiers of synthetic biology might be used to enhance natural photosynthesis for improved solar energy conversion efficiency.

• Research Organization: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Bio-Inspired Solar Fuel Production (BISfuel)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0001016
• OSTI ID: 1065425
• Journal Information: Science, Vol. 332, Issue 6031; Related Information: BISfuel partners with Arizona State University.; ISSN 0036-8075
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
catalysis (homogeneous)
catalysis (heterogeneous)
solar (fuels)
photosynthesis (natural and artificial)
bio-inspired
hydrogen and fuel cells
electrodes - solar
charge transport
materials and chemistry by design
synthesis (novel materials)
synthesis (self-assembly)