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How plants generate energy.
We are told that plants get all their energy from the sun. We see this is untrue simply by looking at the roots and how they metabolize just like animal cells so obviously not all the energy is coming from the sun. But what if even the majority of plant energy was not coming from the sun but rather from transpiration itself? That is plants gain the majority of their energy from the evaporation of water.
How can evaporating water produce energy? This is actually pretty simple on the surface. We know that hydrogen bonds keep water together as a liquid. So if we evaporate water we are breaking these hydrogen bonds. Whenever we break bonds we release energy, and any released energy can theoretically be captured.
But it turns out to be even more energy than breaking weak hydrogen bonds. Plants and all cells produce OH- zones called EZ or exclusion zones. These form from the exclusion of hydrogen ions, which the separated hydrogen ions H+ push other cations out of the EZ. Now when these OH- groups evaporate (a process that mostly only happens in plants), now you are breaking ionic bonds and electrons are released. 4 OH- groups collapse to form H2O + O2. This is what goes out through the Stoma of the plant.
So the plant opens its stoma and the EZ starts evaporating producing electrical energy and releasing water vapor and oxygen. This electrical energy is captured and used to power processes in the plant (which might be coupled to photosynthesis). It appears that the peroxisome is what produces the extra EZ for evaporating and this forms H2O2 (same as 2 OH-) which is what evaporates into O2 and H2O releasing electrons.
Peroxisomes are membrane bound and there are gaps between cells to allow for this H2O2 to evaporate when the stoma open.
This evaporation is the major process producing energy for plants. Stoma of course is not required as the H2O2 can evaporate even without stoma open (especially in C4 desert plants in hot arid climates) but stoma greatly increase H2O2 evaporation rate and therefore energy generation.
How plants generate energy.
We are told that plants get all their energy from the sun. We see this is untrue simply by looking at the roots and how they metabolize just like animal cells so obviously not all the energy is coming from the sun. But what if even the majority of plant energy was not coming from the sun but rather from transpiration itself? That is plants gain the majority of their energy from the evaporation of water.
How can evaporating water produce energy? This is actually pretty simple on the surface. We know that hydrogen bonds keep water together as a liquid. So if we evaporate water we are breaking these hydrogen bonds. Whenever we break bonds we release energy, and any released energy can theoretically be captured.
But it turns out to be even more energy than breaking weak hydrogen bonds. Plants and all cells produce OH- zones called EZ or exclusion zones. These form from the exclusion of hydrogen ions, which the separated hydrogen ions H+ push other cations out of the EZ. Now when these OH- groups evaporate (a process that mostly only happens in plants), now you are breaking ionic bonds and electrons are released. 4 OH- groups collapse to form H2O + O2. This is what goes out through the Stoma of the plant.
So the plant opens its stoma and the EZ starts evaporating producing electrical energy and releasing water vapor and oxygen. This electrical energy is captured and used to power processes in the plant (which might be coupled to photosynthesis). It appears that the peroxisome is what produces the extra EZ for evaporating and this forms H2O2 (same as 2 OH-) which is what evaporates into O2 and H2O releasing electrons.
Peroxisomes are membrane bound and there are gaps between cells to allow for this H2O2 to evaporate when the stoma open.
This evaporation is the major process producing energy for plants. Stoma of course is not required as the H2O2 can evaporate even without stoma open (especially in C4 desert plants in hot arid climates) but stoma greatly increase H2O2 evaporation rate and therefore energy generation.
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