Plants can be a source of "clean" energy. This has been demonstrated by Israeli scientists who have succeeded, after several years of work, in producing electricity from plants.
According to their study published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science , plants have particularly efficient electrical production capacities, based on the photosynthesis process.
Plants contain "solar panels"
According to Iftach Yacoby, director of the renewable energy laboratory of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, all green plants, leaves, grass or algae, contain real "solar panels" and know how to take a ray of light to transform it into a current of electrons. The challenge remained to extract this current from the plant.
“To connect a device to electricity, just plug it into a power outlet. In the case of a plant, we didn't know where to plug in. We looked for a nano-socket by working on a micro-algae ”, in which we injected with the help of a bioreactor an enzyme which produces hydrogen, he explains. The micro-algae then developed cells containing the new enzyme and the researchers concluded that it produced good electricity.
"A new era in agriculture"
Professor Yacoby said he was convinced that it could be "a new era in agriculture which, after having been able to feed people for millennia, will be able to be used to produce energy". "We thought there was potential but we didn't know if it was going to work and it worked," rejoiced the scientist, whose work lasted almost six years.
"There are many things that we can consider doing thanks to the results of our research," he added, as, ultimately, "reducing pollution in the field of transport and heavy industry". . But, according to him, it will take another 10 to 20 years to achieve this.
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