Addressing the Global Energy Challenge: Surpassing the C- and N- Fixation Processes of Nature

Abstract: Living healthy on a dying planet—we are a world out of balance. Relying on science to improve the health of the individual with the design of new drugs and therapies, we are neglectful of the health of our humanity at a global level. Disease indeed does compromise humankind’s very existence … but it is not disease inflicted on humans … rather it is the disease inflicted by humans on our planet and the response of its immunological system on us. Climate change continues to outpace the implementation of renewable energy at an alarming rate. Understanding that the non-legacy world (one without energy infrastructures) will drive future global energy need, the underserved are the most important target to mitigate global carbon emissions. In response, we have created a science that uses only sunlight, air and water to accomplish carbon and nitrogen fixation, enabling us to establish the industrial processes of Fischer-Tropsch and Haber-Bosch, but in a distributed way. The carbon and nitrogen fixation cycles begin with the Artificial Leaf, which was invented to accomplish the solar fuels process of natural photosynthesis—the splitting of water to hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight—under ambient conditions. The hydrogen from the catalysts of the Artificial Leaf may be interfaced with engineered organisms to power the Bionic Leaf-C and Bionic Leaf-N to convert carbon dioxide and nitrogen from air into liquid fuels and fertilizer, respectively. Where are these innovations important? The use of the simple inputs of only sunlight, air and water to produce fuel (carbon neutral) and food and vitamins (carbon negative) within a sustainable cycle for the biogenic elements of C, N and P is particularly useful to the poor of the world, where large infrastructures for fuel and food production are not tenable.