Agricultural electricity has the potential to solve many ineffective problems of traditional agriculture such as requiring large amounts of water, fertilizer and land to grow crops.
Biological engineers propose a bold new method of food production that could dramatically change agriculture, making farming more efficient, sustainable and adaptable to environments like space . Called “agrivoltaics”, this system will replace traditional photosynthesis (the process that only converts about 1% of absorbed light energy into chemical energy in plants) with an efficient conversion reaction. carbon dioxide (CO2) into organic molecules that plants can use as food, Interesting Engineering reported on October 23.
“Because agrivoltaics are independent of climatic conditions and provide greater efficiency than traditional farming, it can serve as a useful method for producing supplementary foods when needed,” said the study’s authors. save Feng Jiao shares. “As global climate change impacts agriculture, advanced food production technologies are becoming increasingly important to stabilize food markets and support a growing population.”
Photosynthesis, the process that allows life to exist on Earth by converting sunlight into chemical energy in plants, is extremely inefficient. According to researchers, only a small portion of the sunlight that plants absorb (about 1%) is converted into usable energy. As food demand increases, arable land is limited and the climate crisis approaches, improving this efficiency is essential.
In agriculture, photovoltaic panels will be used to power the chemical reaction between CO2 and water, creating acetate, a molecule related to acetic acid (the main ingredient in vinegar). Crops will be genetically engineered to use acetate as a primary energy source instead of relying on photosynthesis. If this system is applied on a large scale, it could reduce the land area needed for agriculture by 94%, according to the research team’s estimates.
Robert Jinkerson, a biological engineer at the University of California, Riverside, and study co-author, considers this technology a big step forward. “If we no longer need to grow plants with sunlight, we can detach from the environment and grow food in a controlled environment indoors,” he said.
The technology could shift farming to multi-story indoor vertical farms, where solar energy is harnessed outside the building to boost crops growing inside. According to Jiao, the current version of agricultural electricity achieves an energy conversion efficiency of about 4%, four times higher than photosynthesis. As a result, the CO2 emissions associated with food production become much smaller.
The method has the potential to solve some outstanding problems of traditional agriculture such as requiring large amounts of water, fertilizer and land to grow crops. Agrielectricity will produce food in a controlled environment, allowing for more precise resource management and reducing the environmental impact of farming. Additionally, the method can mitigate the impact of climate change through decoupling food production from weather patterns and seasonal changes.
To achieve their goal, the research team developed genetically modified crops to “eat” acetate. Plants naturally have metabolic processes that help them break down food stored in seeds during germination. This process is stopped as soon as plants start using photosynthesis. The bioengineering team aims to reactivate the process in grown plants so they can use acetate as an energy source. Although the initial research focused on tomatoes and lettuce, the team plans to expand to calorie-rich crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes and grains. Although research is still in its early stages, other organisms such as fungi, yeast and algae in nature already use acetate as an energy source. This means the technology can become commercially applicable to these organizations much sooner.