Fuel production takes to water with ‘artificial leaves’

Floating ‘artificial leaves’ that generate clean fuels from sunlight and water could eventually operate on a large scale at sea.

This is the claim of researchers at Cambridge University who have designed ultra-thin, flexible devices that split water into hydrogen and oxygen, or reduce CO2 to syngas, which is used to produce commodities including fuels, pharmaceuticals, plastics and fertilisers.

Since the low-cost, autonomous devices are light enough to float, they could be used to generate a sustainable alternative to petrol without taking up space on land, the researchers said.

Outdoor tests of the lightweight leaves on the River Cam showed that they can convert sunlight into fuels as efficiently as plant leaves, which us photosynthesis to convert sunlight into chemical energy.

This is the first time that clean fuel has been generated on water, and if scaled up, the artificial leaves could be used on polluted waterways, in ports or at sea. The results are reported in Nature.