You are here  The Breakthrough Behind a 300% Increase in
Photosynthesis Productivity  January 31, 2011 - 3:29pm
Recently, the Department of Energy hosted Dr. Tasios Melis, the
UC Berkeley scientist behind a Department of Energy funded
innovation that promises to triple the productivity of
photosynthesis in plants and algae.  If you remember from high
school biology class, photosynthesis is the process used by
plants and many other organisms to convert sunlight into
chemical energy. A molecule called chlorophyll serves to absorb
sunlight for use in photosynthesis. Chlorophyll molecules can be
stacked in arrays to help plants or algae absorb as much
sunlight as possible. By tripling the productivity of
photosynthesis, Dr. Melis’ breakthrough will dramatically
improve light absorption and utilization, which could yield a
300 percent improvement in the conversion of sunlight to
chemical energy. That chemical energy – read “fuel” – which can
be harvested from algae, can come in different forms: bulk
biomass (pla