Each year 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to bottle 89 billion liters of water, and the energy required to manufacture and transport this bottled water severely drains our limited supply of fossil fuels.

But MIT chemist Dan Nocera has discovered a way to make plastic water bottles more environmentally friendly.

Using a special catalyst, Nocera’s new photosynthetic process can power a home using only sunlight and a bottle of water.

Similar to organic photosynthesis, the reaction uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and energy.

In only four hours, water treated with Nocera’s catalyst can produce 30 kilowatt-hours of energy.  And more importantly, the process is so cheap that Nocera envisions a day when every house generates its own fuel and electricity from photosynthesis.

[PopSci]

Image from Roomic Cube/Flickr

Filed under: Chemical, e-News, Environmental

Tags: Chemical, Energy, Environmental