As part of the on-going pursuit of this goal, researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich claim to have created a working, compact, self-contained artificial photosynthesis system that could form the basis for practical commercial devices.

Photosynthesis in plants and certain types of algae is the process where light energy is transformed into chemical energy to synthesize simple carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water. In artificial photosynthesis, or photoelectrochemical water splitting, solar energy is used to split hydrogen molecules from water (or even further refine it into methane in some systems).

In this latest system, as in most other artificial photosynthesis devices, the amalgamation of a solar cell and an electrolyzer is used to capture solar energy to split water into hydrogen. A technique employed since the 1970s, most research has concentrated on increasing efficiency by developing new absorber materials and catalysts.