The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently published news on the development of new technology that uses bacteria to create liquid fuel from sunlight. The study , published Feb. 9, details the bio-technological advance, describing how solar radiation by the bacteria creates fuel with potential applications in fields such as providing fuel and power to cars or for power generation.  

This work done to create this technology came out of several teams, spanning disciplines. Researches from Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering all worked in conjunction to create an integrated “artificial leaf” that mimics the chemical processes that happen in photosynthesis. The system converts solar energy using a catalyst that allows light waves from the sun to split water atoms into their hydrogen and oxygen constituents, then uses an engineered bacterium for the conversion of carbon dioxide and hydrogen into isopropanol, a combustible liquid fuel. 

This work comes after the discovery of the catalyst itself, by Dr. Daniel Norcera, a Professor of Energy at Harvary University. His work in the development and invention of an artificial leaf using the catalyst was an integral predecessor to the “bionic leaf” created recently.  

First co-authors Dr. Joseph Torella, from the HMS Department of Systems Biology, and Dr. Christopher Gagliardi, from the Harvard Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology,  worked with Pamela Silver, a Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology at HMS, founding core faculty member of the Wyss and an author of the paper. “This is a proof of concept that you can have a way of harvesting solar energy and storing it in the form of a liquid fuel,” Silver explains, “Dan’s formidable discovery of the catalyst really set this off, and we had a mission of wanting to interface some kinds of organisms with the harvesting of solar energy. It was a perfect match.”