That bougainvillea blooming in your backyard is more than just beautiful. It is powerful — with an ability to convert the sun’s light into energy through a process known as photosynthesis.
Scientists understand this process well. The challenge is duplicating it.
“Plants figured this out millions of years ago,” said Jim Allen, a professor in Arizona State University’s School of Molecular Sciences who has spent 35 years studying how the sun’s energy is captured and transferred in photosynthesis.
He’s just one of many researchers from the school who are working on energy solutions that are inspired by nature — starting at the molecular level — to rethink how we power our world.
Here, we take a look at some of those projects.
Tapping bacteria
Plants change light energy into chemical energy through a series of steps that begins when light hits specialized proteins in the plants.
Allen has been studying how these proteins, particularly in bacteria, can perform a simpler but similar version of photosynthesis.
He and his colleagues are working to mimic the plant process by recreating it using a hybrid system that mixes natural plant proteins with man-made molecules to better understand and eventually copy how living organisms capture and use energy.
The end goal? To eventually create a new kind of solar energy device that mimics nature. Allen hopes to make major progress toward this goal within a year.
“Once we’ve accomplished this and we know we can move proteins in our hybrid system, we can use all the lessons we’ve learned from nature to make use of that in an energy device,” Allen said.
Mimicking energy storage
Like Allen, Associate Professor Gary Moore focuses on the biological process of photosynthesis — but he is interested in taking cues from how nature stores solar energy in molecules so we can re-engineer the process.
Because renewable energy sources such as solar and wind are not always available, it’s important to find ways to store it efficiently.
As Moore says, “The sun sets, the wind stops blowing.”
So Moore and his researchers are finding ways to store energy in chemical fuels like hydrogen or carbon-based molecules that can power large-scale transportation (like airplanes) and long-haul transportation.
His carbon-based fuel solution will be carbon neutral — not releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it burns but instead absorbing it.
“This science has made this … idea of a secure and sustainable energy future a possibility,” Moore said. “But if you want to make that a reality, it's not just the insights of researchers, but those researchers have to be supported through incentives and economics.
“The chemistry we're developing looks to solve real-world, modern-day societal challenges, both in energy transduction (conversion) and in a range of emerging technologies that are important to advancing human health and well-being.”
Redesigning nature
Making the ammonium used for fertilizer accounts for 1% of global energy use and 2% of global CO2 greenhouse emissions.
That's why ASU biophysicist and microbiologist Kevin Redding is creating an environmentally friendly alternative that can still supply plants with essential nutrients for growth.
His approach is not to copy nature, but redesign it.
“Basically what I am trying to do is take nature and change it,” Redding said.
His lab uses gene editing tools to rewire the genetic code of a rare bacteria that doesn’t need oxygen, is highly flexible and allows him and his team to introduce systems that fix carbon and nitrogen — key ingredients for fertilizers — without relying on fossil fuels or electricity.
He describes the systems as “living solar factories” — a breakthrough that could one day transform agriculture, energy and environmental sustainability.
“What I am trying to do is use sunlight, bacteria and an understanding of ancient biochemistry to redesign it,” he said.
Redding’s systems would not only avoid that greenhouse effect but actually pull carbon dioxide out of the air.
And while his research is still in its early stages, he predicts it will provide a cheap, scalable, self-replicating system that could transform agriculture and help fight climate change.
“This is where the rubber hits the road,” Redding said. “We are not just imagining a greener system — we’re building it.”
Why this research matters
Research is the invisible hand that powers America’s progress. It unlocks discoveries and creates opportunity. It develops new technologies and new ways of doing things.
Learn more about ASU discoveries that are contributing to changing the world and making America the world’s leading economic power at researchmatters.asu.edu.
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