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					</table><p>A group of researchers at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Cambridge</a> successfully manipulated the initial steps of photosynthesis and uncovered a novel approach to harnessing its energy.</p>
<p>As identified by the researchers, the reconfiguration of photosynthesis could enhance its capacity to manage surplus energy and establish novel and more effective techniques for utilizing its potential.</p>
<p>“We didn’t know as much about photosynthesis as we thought we did, and the new electron transfer pathway we found here is completely surprising,” said Jenny Zhang from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry.</p>
<p>Zhang and her team initially aimed to comprehend how a circular molecule known as a quinone can &#8220;capture&#8221; electrons from photosynthesis.</p>
<p>Quinones are prevalent in nature and can effortlessly accept and donate electrons.</p>
<p>The outcomes of this study have been published in the scientific journal <em>Nature</em>.</p>
<p>While photosynthesis is an inherent biological process, scientists have been investigating its potential role in mitigating the climate crisis by imitating photosynthetic mechanisms to produce clean fuels from sunlight and water, among other possibilities.</p>
<p>The scientists employed an ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy method to investigate the behavior of quinones in photosynthetic cyanobacteria.</p>
<p>The scientists discovered that the protein framework where the first chemical reactions of photosynthesis transpire is &#8220;porous,&#8221; enabling electrons to flee.</p>
<p>This porosity could help plants safeguard themselves from harm caused by intense or swiftly fluctuating illumination.</p>
<p>“The physics of photosynthesis is seriously impressive,” said co-first author Tomi Baikie, from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory “Normally, we work on highly ordered materials, but observing charge transport through cells opens up remarkable opportunities for new discoveries on how nature operates.”</p>
<p>“Since the electrons from photosynthesis are dispersed through the whole system, that means we can access them,” said co-first author Laura Wey, based at the University of Turku, Finland.</p>
<p>The scientists contend that the capability to extract charges at an earlier stage in the photosynthesis process could heighten the efficiency of photosynthetic pathways when manipulating them to generate clean energy from sunlight.</p>
<p>Additionally, the capacity to regulate photosynthesis could lead to the creation of crops that are more tolerant of intense light.</p>
<p>Zhang noted that many scientists have attempted to extract electrons from an earlier point in photosynthesis but considered it unattainable due to the energy being deeply embedded in the protein scaffold.</p>
<p>She further added that the fact that they were able to capture electrons in an earlier phase was remarkable. At first, the team was skeptical and thought they had made an error, but they were eventually able to convince themselves that they had succeeded.</p>
<p>The utilization of ultrafast spectroscopy was critical to this discovery since it allowed the team to track the energy flow in live photosynthetic cells on a femtosecond scale – a millionth of a billionth of a second.</p>
<p>In January 2023, researchers at the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/researchers-produce-hydrogen-air-using-solar-power" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invented</a> a solar-powered device that is capable of harvesting water from the air for conversion into hydrogen fuel.</p>
<p>Last September, researchers at the University of Melbourne <a href="https://mercomindia.com/melbourne-university-researchers-build-device-to-generate-hydrogen-from-air/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a way to generate hydrogen directly from the air, eliminating the dependency on freshwater resources.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gautamee Hazarika</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
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<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gautamee,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
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<a href="gautamee@mercomindia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gautamee@mercomindia.com</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="102" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">Gautamee</a> is a reporter at Mercom India. Prior to Mercom, Gautamee was working as a multimedia news journalist at ThePrint in New Delhi. She has received her Bachelors in English Honors and Masters in English Literature from St.Stephen&#8217;s College, University of Delhi.<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee</a></div>
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Photosynthesis ‘Hack’ Could Lead to New Ways of Generating Renewable Energy


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					</table><p>Researchers from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Cambridge</a> in the United Kingdom claimed to have developed a machine learning (ML) algorithm that can help reduce the charging times of batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) while predicting varying driving patterns that affect the battery performance and lifecycle.</p>
<p>The research titled &#8216;Impedance-based forecasting of lithium-ion battery performance amid uneven usage,&#8217; published in the scientific journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature Communications</a> focused on lithium cobalt oxide cells widely used in rechargeable batteries.</p>
<p>Lithium-ion batteries are largely used to power the majority of EVs on roads globally. While transitioning to electrification has benefits, the fear of battery failure and charging time are concerns. The algorithm developed by the Cambridge team forecasts the end of life in batteries and records the performance specifically under varying usage conditions.</p>
<p>Each cell&#8217;s internal state in a lithium-ion battery, including the extent of lithium plating or electrode cracking, can vary significantly both at an intra-pack and inter-pack level. The scalar State of Health (SOH) metric is used to quantify the extent of degradation within the battery cells. The new study highlighted that SOH lacks clarity in recording the level of degradation in cells of lithium-ion batteries.</p>
<p>The Cambridge team developed a non-invasive way to record details of the cell state at a microscopic level, both in short and long timescales. Electrical signals from the battery were converted into a description of the battery&#8217;s state, which was fed into an ML algorithm.</p>
<p>The algorithm could predict how the battery would respond in the next charge-discharge cycle, depending on how quickly the battery was charged and how fast the car would be going the next time it was on the road. When the team conducted tests with 88 commercial batteries, the algorithm did not require any information about the previous usage of the battery to make an accurate prediction.</p>
<p>The Cambridge team is further working with battery manufacturers to accelerate the development of safer, longer-lasting next-generation batteries. Researchers are also exploring how their algorithm-based framework could be used to develop optimal fast charging protocols to reduce EV charging times without causing degradation.</p>
<p>In July 2020, Imperial College London <a href="https://mercomindia.com/this-machine-algorithm-improve-lithium-performance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a new machine-learning algorithm that could improve the design and performance of lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells. They claimed that the algorithm would also allow researchers to understand fuel cells&#8217; microstructure better.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gourav Mishra</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gourav,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="89" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gourav</a> is a staff reporter with Mercom India with over six years of experience in various roles with NewsX, The New Indian Express, IBTimes India, and U.S., Republic, and Analytics India Magazine. Gourav has a Master&#8217;s in journalism from Jain University, Bengaluru. <a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav Mishra</a></div>
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Machine Learning Algorithm Developed to Study EV Battery Charging Time, Performance

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