By:Dr. Bernard Baithuti

 Since the world is facing a huge challenge of sustainably delivering on our energy needs, hydrogen promises to be a major clean energy contributor. Hydrogen is the fuel for the future. Using electrolysis to convert water into hydrogen is costly because it must use continuous grid power. Photosynthetic water oxidation and oxygen evolution in higher plants, algae and cyanobacteria are some of the most fundamental bioenergetic processes on earth.

Photosynthetic organisms use the sun’s energy to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen, and this natural electrolysis is the most efficient method known and depend on a catalyst (‘chemical spark plug’) called the oxygen- evolving complex (OEC) also known as water oxidizing complex (WOC). We can develop an alternative fuel source from water by mimicking the natural photosynthetic process. WOC contains four manganese atoms and a calcium atom. A debate about how the atoms that comprise water are used in the photosynthesis process has been ongoing for decades.

The way plants split water has been poorly understood. If we can steal nature’s secrets and understand how the WOC performs its chemistry, then we can learn how to make hydrogen more efficiently. We recently published a paper titled “A Computational Study of the S2 State in the Oxygen-Evolving Complex of Photosystem II by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy”

Research continues to be the core mandate of the university’s existence as our researchers and innovators endure publishing books and working with other industry-related institutions. -Molecules 2021, 26(9), 2699; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26092699 ,contributing to the ongoing debate regarding the understanding of a complete description of catalytic mechanism in photosynthesis.