Can photosynthesis be used in other areas?

[cloudnine]

Hi to all members.
I would like to invite all of you on this topic.

Green plants and some bacteria (as rhodopseudomonas ) can carry out photosynthesis.
It is the process that produce energy.
Can this energy can be used in other areas ( may be by converting to electrical energy )
If it is possible, it is also possible to produce electricity from a culture of photosynthetic bacteria.

I am little bit confued with this idea and so please dicuss on this.

yours sincerely,
cloudnine

[biostudent84]

Photosynthesis is not a process used to produce energy. It is a process of capturing energy from the sun to break apart Carbon Dioxide and Water, and to recombine the atoms into Glucose, a chemical used for producing ATP.

It basically transforms light energy into molecular bond energy. It would be done on too small a scale to transform it into electical energy...you woud need one large positive and one large negative pole to get electricity.

Kyle

[ERS]

although, recently in the news there was some "new" technology that used spinach plant parts--basically the PSI proteins that convert sunlight to plant energy-- to generate electricity.. A mini-solar power plant. The idea was to make disposable solar batteries that can run cell phones and such. Keep your eye on the news, as they are coming up with all sorts of ways to harness the power in plants..

As Kyle mentioned though, it really isn't feasible to try generating huge amounts of energy through the process...

did anyone else see that article?? It came out a couple months ago.

[cloudnine]

Thank you for your discussions on this.
but there are some ways that may be possible.
The first stage of photosyhesis is the trapping of light energy.
This is done by photosystem I and II and it involves the protein chlorophyll especially type a .
The point i am interested in is that is that chlorophyll can still trap the light energy and be excited and then release electrons when it is isolated in vitro.
If so, this can be isolated, transformed into bacteria and then place some devices to capture the released electrons to have a electric current.
But this idea can be said to be impossible but how can it be wrong?
Friends, please dicuss on this.
You may think i am stupid but anyway please.

cloudnine

PS . Hello ERS, i don't know the article you've said and so please suggest me .
And where can i find some news online, please also recommend this too.
Hello Kyle, please again on the above.
And all the other members.
Thank you.

[biostudent84]

The basic idea in electricity is to have a voltage. Yes, it is possible to create voltage with the energy captured during Photosynthesis. However, it would not be one big voltage, but trillions apon trillions of tiny ones from each individual molecule of Chlorophyll. Not only would it be impossible to get wiring that small to link up all those voltages together (to form one big voltage), but it would be impractacle. Sapping a plant of the energy created in Photosynthesis would very quickly kill the plant.

I think my counterpart would be better able to explain the infeasability of this...I have not read the article about exactly how this works. ERS?

[Premed]

hmmmm... one process that occurs is the electron transport chain... which is basically a movement move electron through a gradient... current is in its simplest term is the movement of electrons... if somehow you could capture these electrons and run it through a wire... it would work... I guess... I'm not really good at this sorry

[biostudent84]

Yes, but as I described before, there are TRILLIONS of different points where electrons are transferred. You would need trillions of molecular-sized wires to do this...

[cloudnine]

Thank you for your additional comment.
Are these wires needed only for the detection of the point of electron production.?
why not normal wires with the smallest size?
I think they can't allow the electron flow with very little ampere, can't they?
I am not debating with you.
I have no theory background for my idea and it is the way that i can think.

best regards,
cloudnine

[biostudent84]

When you have electron transfer, it happens at the molecular level. These wires I talk of are thoretically impossible...and they would be needed at each atom to be effective.

[mith]

Wired mag recently had an article about biocells although not through photosynthesis. The article discusses using sugar ingesting bacterial. No idea how it works though

[thank.darwin]

Photosynthesis is not a process used to produce energy. It is a process of capturing energy from the sun to break apart Carbon Dioxide and Water, and to recombine the atoms into Glucose, a chemical used for producing ATP.

It basically transforms light energy into molecular bond energy. It would be done on too small a scale to transform it into electical energy...you woud need one large positive and one large negative pole to get electricity.

Kyle

Right - Energy+carbon dioxide+water=carbohydrate+water

[Wojahoitz]

I have asked my bio teacher this but she never really explained it. Is it, theoretically speaking, possible to genetically engineer the process fo photosynthesis into other organisms? Such as humans?