The agriculture industry relies on photosynthesis to grow food to feed the world. However, the process is slow and requires a lot of resources that make the process inefficient to meet the world’s needs.
Feng Jiao, professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, along with Robert E. Jinkerson, assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside, propose a move to an electro-agriculture framework that combines carbon dioxide electrolysis with biological systems to boost the efficiency of food production. Such a system could reduce agricultural land use in the United States by nearly 90% and allow food to be grown in urban areas and deserts without the need for light or pesticides. It also allows for fertilizer to be used more efficiently.
Jiao, who also is the co-principal investigator of the Carbon Utilization Redesign for Biomanufacturing-Empowered Decarbonization (CURB) Engineering Research Center (ERC) at WashU, said the approach could reduce environmental impacts of food production, streamline supply chains and address the global food crisis.
Jiao’s ongoing work is to optimize the process of converting CO2 into acetate which can potentially serve as a feedstock for plants in this system. Plants can be genetically modified to feed off acetate, thereby making vertical indoor farming viable. The method can also be used to produce fuel or biodegradable materials since fungi, yeast and algae can also feed on vinegar-like molecule.
The goal is massive reduction in land use for growing food and fuel, land that can instead be put toward conservation and decarbonization.
“Electro-ag would allow for both ecological restoration and natural carbon sequestration at a massive scale,” the authors write.
More about the electro-agriculture system is found in research published Oct. 23 in Joule.
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Crandall, BS, Harland-Dunaway M, Jinkerson RE, Jiao F. Electro-agriculture: Revolutionizing farming for a sustainable future. Joule. Oct. 23, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2024.09.011
Funding for this research was provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-051757 and INV-051759).
Contact: Feng Jiao at [email protected]
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