This technical book explores current and future applications of solar power as an unlimited source of energy that earth receives every day. Photosynthetic organisms have learned to utilize this abundant source of energy by converting it into high-energy biochemical compounds. Inspired by the efficient conversion of solar energy into an electron flow, attempts have been made to construct artificial photosynthetic systems capable of establishing a charge separation state for generating electricity or driving chemical reactions. Another important aspect of photosynthesis is the CO2 fixation and the production of high energy compounds. Photosynthesis can produce biomass using solar energy while reducing the CO2 level in air. Biomass can be converted into biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol. Under certain conditions, photosynthetic organisms can also produce hydrogen gas which is one of the cleanest sources of energy.

Since the events crucial to plant photosynthesis are now known in molecular detail, this process is no longer nature's secret, but can for the first time be mimicked by technology. Broad in its scope, this book spans the basics of biological photosynthesis right up to the current approaches for its technical exploitation, making it the most complete resource on artificial photosynthesis ever published. The contents draw on the expertise of the Australian Artificial Photosynthesis Network, currently the world's largest coordinated research effort to develop effective photosynthesis technology. This is further backed by expert contributions from around the globe, providing an authoritative overview of current research worldwide.

This comprehensive book systematically covers the fundamentals in solar energy conversion to chemicals, either fuels or chemical products. It includes natural photosynthesis with emphasis on artificial processes for solar energy conversion and utilization. The chemical processes of solar energy conversion via homogeneous and/or heterogeneous photocatalysis has been described with the mechanistic insights. It also consists of reaction systems toward a variety of applications, such as water splitting for hydrogen or oxygen evolution, photocatalytic CO2 reduction to fuels, and light driven N2 fixation, etc. This unique book offers the readers a broad view of solar energy utilization based on chemical processes and their perspectives for future sustainability.

This book is a tribute to three outstanding scientists, Professors Jan Anderson FRS, Leslie Dutton FRS and John Walker FRS, Nobel Laureate. Covering some of the most recent advances in the fields of Bioenergetics and Photosynthesis, this book is a compilation of contributions from leading scientists actively involved in understanding the natural biological processes associated with the flow of energy in biological cells. The lectures found in this significant volume were presented at a meeting in March 2016 in Singapore to commemorate the outstanding research in this area.The contents begin with the ideas, specially the contribution from Nobel Laureate Rudolph Marcus, who is well-known for creating the theory of electron transport reactions. This is followed by contributions of many others on various aspects of respiratory and photosynthetic transport chains as well as the dynamic regulation of light harvesting and electron transport events in oxygenic photosynthesis. The book is highly recommended to postgraduate students and researchers who are interested in various aspects of bioenergetic cycles.

To address the environmental, socioeconomic, and geopolitical issues associated with increasing global human energy consumption, technologies for utilizing renewable carbon-free or carbon-neutral energy sources must be identified and developed. Among renewable sources, solar energy is quite promising as it alone is sufficient to meet global human demands well into the foreseeable future. However, it is diffuse and diurnal. Thus effective strategies must be developed for its capture, conversion and storage. In this context, photosynthesis provides a paradigm for large-scale deployment. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria and has evolved over 3 billion years. The process of photosynthesis currently produces more than 100 billion tons of dry biomass annually, which equates to a global energy storage rate of ~100 TW. Recently, detailed structural information on the natural photosynthetic systems has been acquired at the molecular level, providing a foundation for comprehensive functional studies of the photosynthetic process. Likewise, sophisticated spectroscopic techniques have revealed important mechanistic details. Such accomplishments have made it possible for scientists and engineers to construct artificial systems for solar energy transduction that are inspired by their biological counterparts. The book contains articles written by experts and world leaders in their respective fields and summarizes the exciting breakthroughs toward understanding the structures and mechanisms of the photosynthetic apparatus as well as efforts toward developing revolutionary new energy conversion technologies. The topics/chapters will be organized in terms of the natural sequence of events occurring in the process of photosynthesis, while keeping a higher-order organization of structure and mechanism as well as the notion that biology can inspire human technologies. For example, the topic of light harvesting, will be followed by charge separation at reaction centers, followed by charge stabilization, followed by chemical reactions, followed by protection mechanisms, followed by other more specialized topics and finally ending with artificial systems and looking forward. As shown in the table of contents (TOC), the book includes and integrates topics on the structures and mechanisms of photosynthesis, and provides relevant information on applications to bioenergy and solar energy transduction.

Photosynthesis has been an important field of research for more than a century, but the present concerns about energy, environment and climate have greatly intensified interest in and research on this topic. Research has progressed rapidly in recent years, and this book is an interesting read for an audience who is concerned with various ways of harnessing solar energy.Our understanding of photosynthesis can now be said to have reached encyclopedic dimensions. There have been, in the past, many good books at various levels. Our book is expected to fulfill the needs of advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in branches of biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and bioengineering because photosynthesis is the basis of future advances in producing more food, more biomass, more fuel, and new chemicals for our expanding global human population. Further, the basics of photosynthesis are and will be used not only for the above, but in artificial photosynthesis, an important emerging field where chemists, researchers and engineers of solar energy systems will play a major role.

This interdisciplinary book focuses on the various aspects transformation of the energy from sunlight into the chemical bonds of a fuel, known as the artificial photosynthesis, and addresses the emergent challenges connected with growing societal demands for clean and sustainable energy technologies. The editors assemble the research of world-recognized experts in the field of both molecular and materials artificial systems for energy production. Contributors cover the full scope of research on photosynthesis and related energy processes.