With the increasing population and food demand, the need to have an efficient and sustainable food production system has emerged. While vertical farming offers a potent solution to boost resource use efficiency, its substantial energy requirements hinder its widespread use.
A group of bioengineers has proposed Electro-agriculture, a revolutionary cultivation method that essentially requires no sunlight. As Electro-agriculture uses multi-story buildings, the amount of land needed for agriculture would be reduced by 94%.
“If we don’t need to grow plants with sunlight anymore, then we can decouple agriculture from the environment and grow food in indoor, controlled environments. I think that we need to move agriculture into the next phase of technology, and producing it in a controlled way that is decoupled from nature has to be the next step.” says the author and biological engineer Robert Jinkerson.
Electro-agriculture aims to replace photosynthesis with a solar-panel-powered chemical reaction that efficiently converts CO2 into an organic molecule, acetate. Acetate would then be fed to Genetically Modified crops, which would be grown hydroponically.
To genetically modify acetate-eating plants, researchers are eyeing the native ability of plants to germinate seeds without light. However, this ability is paused once plants become capable of photosynthesis. Reawakening this proficiency would enable plants to use acetate as an energy source and carbon.
Researchers have genetically engineered plants that can use acetate along with photosynthesis. However, their ultimate aim is to arrange plants that can obtain only all necessary energy from acetate, thereby bypassing photosynthesis.
Researchers are currently experimenting with tomatoes and lettuce. They plan to soon move towards high-calorie staple crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, and grain crops.
Producing food without sunshine using artificial Photosynthesis
“For plants, we’re still in the research-and-development phase of trying to get them to utilize acetate as their carbon source because plants have not evolved to grow this way, but we’re making progress,” says Jinkerson.
The foremost aim of Electro-ag is to boost the efficiency of photosynthesis. Plants utilize only 1% of the total absorbed light to perform photosynthesis. Electrochemist Jiao has confirmed that they have already achieved 4% efficiency with this method, allowing them to reduce their CO2 footprint.
Researchers claim that electro-agriculture is more efficient than traditional forms of farming in all possible ways. For instance, electro-ag uses hydroponic systems to deliver electrolyzer effluent to the plants, which reduces water use by 95%.
Electro-ag is done in a closed, circulated system. This enhances the efficiency of fertilizers like ammonium nitrate and ammonia while halting their escape from the environment. This reduces greenhouse gas emissions and waterway eutrophication.
How plants use carbon affects their response to climate change
“This is just the first step for this research, and I think there’s a hope that its efficiency and cost will be significantly improved in the near future,” says Jiao.
Journal Reference
- Bradie S. Crandall, Marcus Harland-Dunaway, Robert E. Jinkerson, and Feng Jiao. Electro-Agriculture: Revolutionizing Farming for a Sustainable Future. Joule. DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2024.09.011
