Abstract:
The extensive burning of fossil fuels for energy has led to their inevitable peak and fossil fuels are projected to be depleted in the next 50-100 years. The use of fossil fuels negatively affects the environment with the emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants such as soot and tar. Renewable energy sources such as solar energy are great alternatives for fossil fuels and are currently being explored. Generation of efficient light harvesting systems with high quantum efficiency can harvest solar energy and transport the energy via carriers such as NADH or H2, as the energy can then be stored and used as needed. The research in this thesis aims to explore the photochemical generation of redox cofactor, NADH and photoenzymatic synthesis of L-glutamate using light harvesting peptide-porphyrin system.
