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Artificial Leaf May Pave Way for New Era of 'Fast Food Energy'

by Nancy Needhima on Dec 4 2011 11:55 PM

Artificial Leaf May Pave Way for New Era of
Technology engaged in creating an 'artificial leaf' perhaps can soon be used for generating 'fast food energy'. Debuting an era where people will be able to generate their own electricity at home using inexpensive equipments.
The technology will be perfect for the 3 billion people living in developing countries and even homeowners in the United States.

That is among the prospects emerging from research on a new genre of 'electrofuels', made by using energy from the sun and renewable ingredients like water and carbon dioxide.

C and EN Senior Correspondent Stephen K. Ritter in the study has described the artificial leaf is one of the electrofuels technologies. Made of inexpensive materials, the leaf breaks down ordinary water into the oxygen and hydrogen that can power an electricity-producing fuel cell.

Just drop the credit-card-sized device into a bucket of water and expose it to sunlight. With the cost-conscious technology, one door-sized solar cell and three gallons of water could produce a day's worth of electricity for a typical American home.

The study has also described a range of other electrofuel technologies, including ones based on engineered microbes, being developed in the quest for new ways of making fuels.

The study has been published in the Chemical and Engineering News, the American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine.

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Source-ANI


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