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CATEGORIES:Plant Sciences Research Seminars
SUMMARY:Electrogenic photosynthetic microorganisms: harnes
 sing solar energy in bio-photovoltaic (BPV) system
 s - Alistair McCormick\, Plant Metabolism
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20110225T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20110225T133000
UID:TALK29936AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/29936
DESCRIPTION:There is an urgent need to develop renewable energ
 y technologies to replace depleting fossil fuel re
 sources and provide a carbon neutral source of pow
 er. Solar energy is an abundant resource that repr
 esents an attractive target to supplement this req
 uirement and the development of efficient solar ce
 ll systems to capture even a small fraction of thi
 s enormous reserve is currently an important scien
 tific and engineering challenge.  Some of the key 
 benefits of using biological materials to reach th
 is goal are that the photosensitive components are
  significantly cheaper than synthetic analogues (e
 .g. semi-conductors)\, are self-assembled and\, in
  some cases\, are capable of self-repair.  A recen
 tly established multidisciplinary consortium of gr
 oups based in the University of Cambridge has prop
 osed to develop\, test and optimise a novel microb
 ial fuel cell-inspired technology that exploits th
 e photosynthetic machinery of intact micro-organis
 ms (unicellular algae and cyanobacteria) for biolo
 gical solar power and biofuel generation. Bio-phot
 ovoltaic (BPV) cells aspire to be the biological a
 lternative to existing synthetic solar cell techno
 logies.  Several key electrochemical factors limit
 ing performance efficiency\, including the density
  of the photosynthetic catalyst\, the electron car
 rier concentration and light intensity\, have been
  investigated for optimising light-driven power ou
 tputs.  Furthermore\, biofilms grown from photosyn
 thetic fresh water or marine microorganisms have d
 emonstrated light-driven electrical power generati
 on without the addition of an artificial electron 
 carrier that persisted for several weeks and was h
 ighly sensitive to ambient light levels.  When con
 nected in series\, four BPVs (each 110 cm2) genera
 ted enough power to run a commercial digital clock
 .  The efficiencies achieved thus far indicate tha
 t BPV technology is a viable alternative to biomas
 s-based photobioreactor systems for the harvesting
  of solar energy.
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theat
 re
CONTACT:
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