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Artificial photosynthesis could be the answer to renewable fuel, made from sunlight and CO2.

​PALO ALTO, Ca. June 3, 2015; NACSonline reported that while electric cars are all the rage when it comes to cutting-edge alternative fuel vehicles, some suggest that the real fuel of the future may be in something even more sustainable than electricity: sunlight.

GreenCarReports.com hypothesizes about a future fuel that “wouldn't require drivers who are used to pumping gas to alter their habits, and would sidestep the issues of battery weight and charging times. What if there was a sustainable fuel that could do all of that, and could be manufactured using the same process that plants use to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air?”

What they’re referring to is artificial photosynthesis, a process that uses sunlight to split water and carbon dioxide into hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. A catalyst then recombines those components into liquid fuels, with methanol one of the most likely to be synthesized. More and more, researchers are intrigued by this process as a way to produce alternative fuels.

According to the report, researchers at the California Institute of Technology claim to have built a lab-scale device that converts 10% of the sunlight that reaches it into liquid fuel, a result that is far more efficient than natural photosynthesis.

However, it’s not all sunny days ahead for the technology: Moving from lab tests to real-life use may prove difficult and the process itself requires the use of some fossil fuels. Not surprisingly, it’s also an expensive prospect. The preferred catalyst used in research thus far is platinum, whose expense is likely to dampen the commercial viability of artificial photosynthesis.

The report states that current research revolves around the goals of finding a cheaper catalyst, improving efficiency beyond the current 10%, and streamlining the process. For instance, the splitting of water and CO2 molecules is currently done separately, but researchers want to do it all at once. GreenCarReports writes that the Solar Fuels Institute will attempt to combine the two processes in a $250,000 prototype it hopes to complete by the end of the year. If that is successful, the institute believes it can bring artificial photosynthesis to consumers within five years, and that the fuels it produces could be cost-competitive with gasoline in 10 years. However, the publication notes, “As with other experimental fuels and processes … initial success doesn't automatically translate into commercial viability.”