How much is hype? The abstract of the paper is weird! This seems to be early stage research!
Turns out this is not a research article, but a perspective! I don't like to be fooled like this!
"... bioengineers propose replacing photosynthesis with a solar-panel-powered chemical reaction that more efficiently converts CO2 into the organic molecule, acetate. ..."
"... Plants can be genetically modified to feed off acetate and photosynthesis, thereby making vertical indoor farming much more energy efficient.
The goal is to eventually engineer plants that can fully rely on acetate as fuel, which could lead to a massive reduction in agricultural land use — land that can instead be put toward conservation and decarbonization. ..."
From the abstract:
"Context & scale
The demand for food production is intensifying with a rapidly growing population, yet farmers around the world face unprecedented challenges owing to shifting climatic conditions. Controlled environment and vertical farming have emerged as a potential solution to boost resource use efficiency and food output per unit of land while allowing for cultivation in urban and arid regions, but widespread adoption has been hindered by substantial energy requirements.
Recent developments in CO2/CO electrolysis as well as advances in genetic engineering and selective breeding have laid the groundwork for the emergence of electro-ag to substantially reduce the energy needs of vertical farming. Fueled by acetate derived from CO2 using renewable electricity, electro-ag enables the heterotrophic growth of food crops. Unlike traditional controlled environments or conventional farming, electro-ag is not constrained by the same efficiency limitations of photosynthesis. Instead, the efficient metabolic pathways of acetate utilization are harnessed to allow for at least a 4-fold improvement in solar-to-food efficiency, with future efforts potentially leading to an order of magnitude improvement in energy solar-to-food efficiency. ...
Additionally, electro-ag systems can be deployed in extreme environments such as deserts, cities, or even on Mars where it is otherwise difficult to grow food. ...
Summary
... Here, we propose the adoption of an electro-agriculture (electro-ag) framework that combines CO2 electrolysis with biological systems to enhance food production efficiency. ...
Electro-ag bypasses traditional photosynthesis, enabling food cultivation in non-arable urban centers, arid deserts, and even outer space environments. We offer a new strategy that improves energy efficiency by an order of magnitude compared with photosynthesis ..."
How to grow food without light (original news release)
Electro-agriculture: Revolutionizing farming for a sustainable future (perspective, open access)
Figure 2 Enabling efficient crop growth with CO2 electrolysis
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