From our most basic education we have assimilated that the process of plant photosynthesis is responsible for their growth thanks to the power of the sun. Now, a group of scientists from the University of Copenhagen have found that the opposite action, known as reverse photosynthesis, can provide us with a new high-efficiency energy source.
As we say, if plants use solar energy to grow during photosynthesis, in the reverse order they use it to achieve the opposite effect, i.e. to disappear. This leads to a new use of the sun to decompose materials which, when applied to chemical extraction from biomass, can be very useful.
The main advantage is basically that the sun is the only natural source required, which would lighten the costs and facilitate production. If, until now, to obtain hydrocarbons from decomposed plant matter we had to wait millions of years or provoke reactions through complementary energies, now the sun and reverse photosynthesis could be enough.
In both types of photosynthesis the same molecule: combined with a specific enzyme,chlorophyll, intervenes. It is also capable of breaking down the molecular structures of plants and generating new chemicals applied in the energy and chemical industries.
Controlling this process would involve the possibility of generating energy from plants, plastics and polymers at very low temperatures and in a rapid and less polluting way. Once again, the sun is placed as the most powerful natural source for the production of energy in a future that seems ever closer.
Source: La Razón
