Innovation paves way to make ‘clean’ chemicals, plastics and food using solar energy

Integrated solar reactor uses sunlight, water, CO2 and engineered bacteria to grow biomass in a single beaker

21-May-2026 - A new study led by Dr Lin Su of Queen Mary University of London, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, describes a new integrated solar reactor in which engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli) are grown directly inside the same liquid that converts CO₂ into a usable energy ...