Swiss Chemical Society Lectureship: Taking the Global Energy Challenge Head-On - Surpassing the C- and N- Fixation Processes of Nature

Daniel G. Nocera is the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University. Nocera is recognized for his discoveries in renewable energy, originating new paradigms that have defined the field of solar energy conversion and storage. Nocera created the field of proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) at a mechanistic level by making the first measurements that temporally resolved the movement of an electron coupled to a proton. On this experimental foundation, he provided the first theory of PCET. With PCET as a guiding framework, he invented the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf. The Artificial Leaf comprises Si coated with catalysts to capture the direct solar process of photosynthesis – the use of sunlight to split water to hydrogen and oxygen from neutral water, at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The Bionic Leaf-C comprises a bio-engineered organism interfaced with the catalysts of the Artificial Leaf to capture the dark process of photosynthesis – the combination of carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce biomass and liquid fuels. The integration of the light and dark processes of the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf-C, respectively, allowed Nocera to develop a complete artificial photosynthesis — sunlight + air + water to biomass and liquid fuels. The Bionic Leaf-C is much more efficient than natural photosynthesis, exceeding the biomass efficiencies of natural photosynthesis by a factor of ×10 and biomass-to-fuels efficiencies by a factor of ×100. Extending this approach to the Bionic Leaf-N, Nocera has achieved a renewable and distributed Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen in air by coupling solar-based water splitting to a nitrogen and carbon fixing microorganism to produce a living biofertilizer, resulting in increased crop yields and early harvests. In the latest field trial for leafy vegetables (90% chemical replacement of urea ammonium nitrate), use of the biofertilizer on a 400-acre farm mitigated 153 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. Additionally, the Bionic Leaf-N as a living biofertilizer avoids nitrogen runoff and thus has an important future role in sustainable farming. These science discoveries set the stage for the large scale and distributed deployment of solar energy fuels and food production using only sunlight, air and any water source. With such simple natural inputs, these discoveries are particularly useful to the poor, where large infrastructures for fuel and food production are not tenable.

Nocera’s research contributions have been recognized by several awards, some of which include the Leigh Ann Conn Prize for Renewable Energy, Italgas Prize, IAPS Award, Burghausen Prize, the United Nation’s Science and Technology Award, Firenze Award in Molecular Sciences, F. A. Cotton Medal, Clarivate Citation Laureate and from the American Chemical Society the Inorganic Chemistry, Harrison Howe, Kosolapoff and Remsen Awards and the FA Cotton Medal. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He was named as 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine and was 11th on the New Statesman’s list on the same topic.