A floating artificial leaf-like device that can mimic photosynthesis to produce sustainable petrol or diesel could offer a new source of emission-free fuels, the Guardian reports. The thin, flexible devices — developed by Cambridge researchers — turns sunlight, water and CO2 into synthetic fuel with the potential to be commercialized at an industrial scale, professor of energy and sustainability at Cambridge University Erwin Reisner told the news outlet.

How does it work? The device has chemical light absorbers and catalysts that turn carbon dioxide and water into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The researchers used “thin-film metal oxides and materials called perovskites to create devices that were covered with micrometer-thin, water-repellent layers,” Reisner explained, adding that the result was a “highly effective but non-bulky device that is a millimeter thick and covers an area of 100 sq cm, a bit like a leaf.”

Filling the clean fuel gap: The device could be scaled commercially to make green sustainable kerosene for the aviation market or diesel for the shipping sector. Additionally, the combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide it produces is also used as feedstock in the production of many chemicals and fuels, Reisner added.

And saving land: A crucial advantage of this tech is the fact that it floats and so does not occupy the large amounts of land needed for crops and woodlands. “Clean energy and land use would not be competing with each other,” Reisner said.