A cell uses sunlight to produce electricity and hydrogen from spinach leaves read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/958-a-cell-that-uses-sunlight-to-produce-electricity-and-hydrogen-from-spinach-leaves

Using spinach leaves, researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a bio-photo-electro-chemical (BPEC) cell that produces electricity and hydrogen from water using sunlight. The raw material of the device is water, and its products are electric current, hydrogen and oxygen.

The cell BPEC which absorb sunlight and convert it into a flow of electrons highly efficiently, paves the way for the development of new technologies for the creation of clean fuels from renewable sources: water and solar energy.

Researchers developed the cell based on the naturally occurring process of photosynthesis in plants, in which light drives electrons that produce storable chemical energetic molecules that are the fuels of all cells in the animal and plant worlds.

In order to use photosynthesis researchers added an iron-based compound to the solution. This compound mediates the transfer of electrons from the biological membranes to the electrical circuit, enabling the creation of an electric current in the cell.

The electrical current can also be channeled to form hydrogen gas through the addition of electric power from a small photovoltaic cell that absorbs the excess light. This makes possible the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy that is stored as hydrogen gas.

This energy can be converted when necessary into heat and electricity by burning the hydrogen, in the same way hydrocarbon fuels are used. However, the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and pollute the environment the product of hydrogen combustion is clean water.

Therefore, this is a closed cycle that begins and ends with water, allowing the conversion and storage of solar energy in hydrogen gas, which could be a clean and sustainable substitute for hydrocarbon fuel.