Artificial Photosynthesis

Climate change is one of the most dangerous challenges our planet has faced in recent years,  with potentially harmful sub-problems like changing weather, increasing sea levels, and ecological degradation. Because carbon emissions are the primary cause of this calamity, the demand for new solutions grows with each passing year. The emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere are proportional to the increasing global temperature. Since the Industrial Revolution, the concentration has gradually increased, as have mean world temperatures. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most abundant GHG, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all GHGs. It is mainly produced by burning fossil fuels. Besides, in recent decades, current climatic trends show a warming tendency, with country averaged mean temperature increases of 1.4°C and 2.5°C forecasts for 2050 and 2100. The Mediterranean Sea level rise on the coast, which is already sinking at a rate of about 3-5mm per year, poses a severe risk due to climate change. Over the last 30 years, average annual temperatures have risen by 0.53°C per decade, indicating a significantly higher rise in temperature. Summer warming has been more pronounced than winter warming, with average temperatures increasing by 0.31°C and 0.07°C per decade since 1960, respectively. The problem with extracting carbon from the air is diluted because it exists in 400 parts per million of the atmosphere. So, our investigation is focused on employing an artificial photosynthesis method to capture carbon dioxide gas and produce oxygen gas, which will support the solution to the global warming and climate change problems without any need for enzymes, proteins, or bio-catalysts. The purpose of the research is to provide more energy that can be used to generate electricity due to ATP production at the artificial photosynthesis' final stage. Besides that, the photosynthesis method involves oxygen gas. The relationship between energy and greenhouse gas emissions has been the most talked-about over the past years. However, the world faces a hazardous serious global energy problem;  hundreds of millions of people lack complete access to sufficient energy, with disastrous effects for themselves and the environment. Due to the increasing growth of the population, we face an over-demanding challenge in the energy sector. The globe is confronted with two energy issues: the overwhelming of our energy production still emits greenhouse gases, and hundreds of millions of people lack complete access to energy. In addition, energy production is responsible for 87 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

Our project focuses on using an artificial photosynthesis mechanism to absorb carbon dioxide gas and release oxygen gas, which will help solve global warming and climate change issues. The process will be done without the usage of enzymes, proteins, or bio-catalysts.

The goal of the study is to give additional energy that can be used to generate electricity as ATP is produced at the last step of artificial photosynthesis. Aside from that, the photosynthetic process uses oxygen gas.

The atmospheric water generator is the first part: It's a device that uses a thermocycler and a refrigerant to transform water vapor into the water in numerous steps (it is a fluid that has its thermodynamic properties).

The solar energy will be gathered by solar panels and used in the water electrolysis process. The first portion of photosynthesis has ended, and oxygen has been created, as oxygen is collected in respiration tubes.

Electrolysis produces hydrogen, which is collected and compressed using a compressor.

The third part includes the use of guanidine, which is the R-group of the amino acid arginine. When air passes over it, it takes carbon dioxide from the environment, and when heated to a particular temperature, it releases all of the carbon dioxide.

In the last stage, the two gases are combined in a sequence of chemical reactions under unique conditions, to make glucose, then break down glucose into ATP and absorb energy from them.

Our amazing solution will not serve a specific population, as it will serve the whole world. The solution will not only improve human life but also will be a great development in many fields such as astronomy and the medical field by the enormous amount of energy, that will be produced. Even it can be used in spaceflights, as it will extend the duration of the space flight and thus more things can be discovered. For specification, the project will help the population, which faces an energy crisis, for instance, China and India (the largest country that faces an energy crisis).

These populations face an enormous energy crisis that affects their daily life. So, imagine living a life without constant power, it is actually a pretty huge problem. Our solution will offer these populations a constant rate and a huge amount of energy that will help them to go with their daily lives. Moreover, it will lead to the industrial revolution. This development will lead to a huge growth in the individual’s income, which reached 428 USD per month in India, and the industrial revolution will cause a huge increase in income and will cause increasing of working opportunities. 

At the beginning of the work, we have chosen one of us who can be suitable for being a leader as the team must have a leader to lead the situations of the group. Leadership skill is from the essential skills it helps manage the work and environment of the group during working.  All the group members began searching about the steps of the process of the artificial photosynthesis method. After we got the analysis, we searched for the materials needed to build the prototype and make the chemical reactions. We distribute the tasks among each other and consider time management. The arrangement and separation of functions positively affect our work.

There must be some factors that make a project successful, such as the budget, the location where the project is built, the experience of the people who build the project, the culture that accepts the projects, and the ideas, particularly for the students, as well as the technology used in the project.

At first, the project we will do contains many processes that will be done by a lot of chemical reactions, catalysts, sensors, and many other machines to produce energy with a large amount. All of these things need a lot of money. As we are school-age, we have no work to gain money for making the project on a large scale to produce the best efficiency, In Egypt, no Corporation, no sponsorship supports us with the money we need. By which the materials of the project are expensive and some of these materials aren’t available in Egypt and we don’t want to replace those materials with any traditional material to produce the best efficiency and best product. As an example, that expensive material is the palladium copper that we will use as a catalyst which costs about 1350 Egyptian pounds which is much more expensive to buy, many of the materials that we had to buy cost too much, and our budget isn’t able to cover all costs.

For making any project there must be a place holding all the equipment that the staffs need for their project, also it must contain the safety priorities. Because our project contains many chemical reactions that need a place to make the experiments in a safe way and with more performance but that place isn’t available to us and no organization offers a place to us, so, we need a laboratory with the materials and technology for the project as the laboratory is the best place that we could work in to make the experiments with safety precautions to guarantee our safety.

To do a successful project there must be a scientific base from trusting research papers and a supervisor with a professor or a scientist. In our project, some small misconceptions need someone to explain them to us. So, we want to do the project under the supervision of some professors as we send for the problems that we face for many professors in Egypt but we don’t find the answer for it.

In Egypt, there is no technology that we can use in the project to increase efficiency and make the project more accurate in its production. That technology isn’t available for us so we need you to help us with that technology.

The Egyptian culture has a small problem in accepting the ideas of other people, especially student who is under 18 ages as they think that students under 18 are still kids, so, we don’t find support from any institution by money or a place to work in or technology.   

In the conclusion, there are many problems in doing the project like the pageant, the culture, the place of working, and the technology used, so we will be grateful for your help and your support.   

The project targets a global problem that threatens the entire planet and human peace and seeks to solve this problem and improve the environment in general. I see that what distinguishes my project is that it is a practical project that can be easily implemented without high costs compared with other mechanisms. It targets all classes of society and its use is not limited to a specific group or region but can be used anywhere and on anyone, it reduces damage significantly and quickly, so results do not take long.
Also, not using biocatalysts, including enzymes, or any of the biological parts and components, makes it an innovation. The use of chemicals only makes the project unique but gives it a priority to advance and complete its function in the long run without the need for short-term maintenance or complex and precise mechanisms.

First of all, we will market our project and advertise its advantages and disadvantages, and try to reach as much as we could to let any big company sponsor us. If the project succeeds it will help us to achieve our goal to give citizens a nice life with pure air as our project help get rid of harmful effects of harmful greenhouse gases. In addition, it will help people in save more money on electricity bills as the project depends on itself to produce the energy used in the process. After five years, life will be changed on the positive side most of the grand challenges that face the world will be solved like the energy crisis, pollution, and public health. Enough energy will be produced for many industries, and the global economy will rise within a few years. Moreover, the Earth's temperature will decrease at a noticeable rate and we will see a drastic change in the ratio of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the air.

Imagine using this project in a certain country it will affect the economy of the country by selling this idea and project to other countries that will benefit us by money to publish more copies of our project and benefit all world.

The project is divided into several parts and stages that help us to achieve our goal. After every stage we have to be sure that this stage is done correctly to complete the following stages, and if there is any error feedback control system (a mechanism) should be followed.

Measuring the value of output compared with the input we have to be sure that our project makes a difference in real life by solving the global warming, energy crisis, and be sure that the project doesn’t affect someone negatively; So, the user will be in good health, absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, and produce clean energy that helps in cleaning the environment, helping in reducing the climate change effects. All of these points should be compared to the input which is the total amount of money paid for these projects and the materials that are used in them.

We check if the opposing output is responsible to be greater than the input to be an effective project. So, we have to use the feedback control system to check the output. Then, if the output doesn’t meet our calculations and expectations, we have to fix the error or upgrade our project. A specific example: solving the problem of health. If there are harmful substances that produce from the project. So, we have to know the source of these substances and try to edit this error to prevent these substances to be produced.

Every day, many projects are completed in our world; some of them succeed, while others fail. Any project's success is determined by the product, how it will benefit others the ratio between the input and the output, and the cost of the project compared with the output of it. Our project will provide numerous benefits in the short and long term, as well as in a variety of disciplines including agriculture, economics, industry, and the environment.

            In the beginning, our project will absorb about 100 grams of Co2 from the air then produce 11.35 moles of ATP (as an average) per day, as one mole of ATP is equal to 7.3 kilocalories, and one kilocalorie is equal to 4184 joules, so, our project will produce about 346665 joules per day, 10399950 joules per month, 124799400 joules per year. This huge amount of energy can be used to make many beneficial things in many fields.           

            Our project will change the world in a short time, at first it will provide many countries with energy, so the countries will save money, by which the economic situation will improve. On the other hand, the project will contain in its march, as it absorbs about 100 grams of carbon dioxide gas per day and produces clean energy, so the percentage of the carbon dioxide gas will decrease, global warming will decrease, the temperature of the Earth will decrease, and the state of climate will be more stable as the percentage of the climate change will decrease. All of these will make our planet better and prevent the extinction of living things.

            In industry, our project will contribute a large amount of energy to the industries (346665 joules per day), this will decrease the outlay of the industries and increase their productivity. In 2018 about 350 billion dollars was paid to make energy for industries in the U.S. but by using that project with each industry the outlay will be saved to use in industrial development.

            In agriculture, our project will help in increasing the product because the project absorbs about 100 grams of carbon dioxide gas, so, the percentage of global warming will decrease and this will help in producing more crops because global warming is the main reason for dying the plants. By increasing the crops there will not be more poverty and famines.

            In the environment, by decreasing the percentage of carbon dioxide global warming will decrease, by which many dangers facing Earth will decrease such as melting ice in the two poles, increasing the sea level, decreasing the crops, decreasing the death of many living organisms, and decreasing in the forest burning. All of these things will make the world better and will make the economical conditions better.

            In economics, the project will increase the economical condition of the world, as the world consumed about 580 million trillion joules per year, and our project produces about 124799400 joules per year, so if we used our project in many felids it; much money saved and used in other things, by which poverty and famines will decrease environment, and means of comfort will be better, and finally our world become better.

            In the conclusion, our project will be used in absorbing carbon dioxide gas and producing energy on a large scale, that energy will be used in many fields to make the world better.

In our era, technology has become abundant very much through this period. It spreads all over the world in many shapes. It can be pieces of equipment or applications on any something else. So, we exploited the available ones to be used in our project. The technology that we used is the sensors. A sensor is a device that monitors and responds to environmental input. We determine each sensor to measure the primary function with a certain percentage needed. Each sensor is put in its suitable place to give us the most significant efficiency that can be done by it. For example, the Percent Concentration Sensors helped us very much in continuing work and doing experiments in our project. This project aims to provide more energy that can be used to generate electricity as ATP is produced at the last step of artificial photosynthesis. Besides, photosynthesis will produce oxygen gas without the use of enzymes, proteins, or bio-catalysts. Also, Arduino Uno is the brain of the operations done by the code, and the DHT 11 Sensor is used for measuring temperature and humidity. Compressor used for compressing the air. The microcontroller is a device integrated into a system and controls a single function. It accomplishes this by employing its core CPU to evaluate data received from its I/O peripherals. Besides using solar panels, there is no pollution and no greenhouse gas emissions; solar panels can be a safe technology for the environment. Moreover, the relay module is a mechanical switch that turns the current on or off. Finally, every small thing is studied in the project, and we try to apply natural interactions in certain circumstances to resemble nature and use them in different fields.

STEM High School For Boys-6th October. This Organization is our School.

“There is no such thing as race. Scientifically, there is just a human race.”— Toni Morrison. Every day, a lot of brilliant, smart, and hardworking people are being persecuted just because of their race, religion, or even their skin color, which deprives them of the opportunity for making amazing things. In this team, we have decided that we definitely would not count on anything in choosing the team members other than their spirit, commitment, and their knowledge. This principle made us choose each other in a way that almost guarantees the most comfortable workplace to yield the best efficiency. The members of this team are from three different provinces, yet no one feels uncomfortable as each one of us is curious about the others, and their cultural backgrounds. This diversity and difference of cultures did not also affect the role of any of the team members. Everyone is doing what they do best. For example, one of the team members is really good at electronics. He won first place in an electronics-related competition called minesweepers, which demanded making a mine detecting robot. Consequently, this person preferred to work more on the prototype to make the best out of it. Another four team members are extraordinary in their research. They have participated in summer programs and research-related teams. They are currently responsible for the scientific base of the project and for finding new ways to enhance it. The last team member in our team is very good at co-operating with companies. He managed to get several internships with several companies. He is responsible for the experiments of our project and the results that are produced from these experiments. Moreover, we have diversity in talents, in interests, which we have a group talented in biology, others in math and physics, others in AI and aurdino, etc This diversity in culture and fields of experience has turned out to be working for the best for the team, and after providing equal tasks and comfortable working space, we managed to maximize the efficiency of the team.

In our project, we hope to help as many people as we can. Consequently, our business model is mainly about selling the products of our project to governments, companies, and facilities which means that our business model would be a B2B type. A B2B business refers to ‘consumer to a business’ Individuals can sell goods and services to businesses through B2B firms. In this e-commerce approach, a website may allow clients to post work they need done and have businesses compete for the job. Affiliate marketing services are also classified as B2B. Subsequently, we would sell the oxygen produced from the project’s process to hospitals to provide it to patients. On the other hand, we would also sell the ATP produced from the glucose to power plants which would transfer it into energy and spread it in many other facilities which makes our customers mainly facilities (as mentioned before).  

It seems impossible to some teenagers to spend more than 80000 Egyptian pounds on a project, however, the team did its best to save money, although we collected less than one-eighth of the needed money, which was about 7 thousand Egyptian pounds. Consequently, we searched for many ways to get sponsors or funds and grants from many factories such as “El-Arabi” and other many factories in Egypt, but Egypt does not take care of the new and enormous projects, so we could not take funds.

Here, we became sure that we will not take funds or find sponsors, and we decided to depend on ourselves and think of ideas to collect the remaining money. One of the team members, who is an expert in Arduino suggested giving some Arduino courses to fund the project. The idea was amazing and we started applying it, finally, after four months of hard work we collected more than 8 thousand Egyptian pounds and we covered the project expenses until now. “The journey from Hopeless to the greatest hope”.We made a huge transformation from a team, that did not have one-eighth of the project expenses to a team that have some money and used it to buy some spare components such as chemicals and solar panels. But it is still not enough. We are looking forward to finding a sponsor who supports our idea and leads it towards success, and we seek to find support to be able to benefit the whole world.

We searched a lot for sponsors for the project, especially in some Egyptian factories such as “El-Araby” and “The Egyptian German factory for porcelain” and other many factories, unfortunately, no company helped us with funds or grants. So, we decided to give Arduino courses, and we gave these courses in a co-working space, which is called “prism co-working space”. Through this journey, we learned many skills mainly commercial and presentation skills and we could collect some money, but unfortunately, it's not enough.