Realizing Ciamician’s Energy Future

Abstract

Giacomo Ciamician imagined a future sustained only by sunlight, air and water - the Artificial Leaf and Bionic Leaf enable such a future. The Artificial Leaf uses sunlight to split H 2 O to H 2 and O 2 . The Bionic Leaf-C takes the H 2 from the catalysts of the Artificial Leaf and combines it with CO 2 in air to make biomass and liquid fuels at efficiencies that are 10 to 100 times greater than natural photosynthesis. Extending the approach, the Bionic Leaf-N combines the H 2 from the Artificial Leaf with N 2 in the air to make a sustainable fertilizer. Finally, these discoveries of distributed Fischer-Tropsch and Haber-Bosch processes are particularly useful to the underserved of the world, where large infrastructures for fuel and food production do not exist