{"id":105773,"date":"2022-03-08T07:39:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T06:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=105773"},"modified":"2022-03-03T15:45:36","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T14:45:36","slug":"solar-fuel-breakthrough-promises-new-industrial-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/solar-fuel-breakthrough-promises-new-industrial-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar fuel breakthrough promises new industrial era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"The
\u00a9 Roman Zaiets, Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Our fossil fuel-based economy is unsustainable. The energy and chemicals we produce from oil and natural gas continue to release billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) into the atmosphere every year, contributing to climate change.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to transition towards an economy based on the principles of circularity and sustainability, we desperately need to develop alternative technologies to exploit renewable energy sources. These, however, not only need to be environmentally friendly; they must also be able to run at industrial scale and be economically feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One area of research that holds great promise is solar fuel \/ chemical generation. This involves applying artificial or natural light to convert molecules, such as CO2<\/sub><\/sup>, into high-energy chemicals. If this technology could one day be developed at the industrial scale, it could help to replace our dependence on fossil fuel and turn CO2<\/sub> into a useful feedstock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identifying viable prototypes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The PEC_Flow project, funded by the European Research Council, built on a previous initiative called HybridSolarFuels. This saw the development of photoelectrodes that are designed to convert CO2<\/sub> into chemicals such as formic acid, carbon monoxide, methanol and ethanol were successfully developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PEC_Flow sought to take this research further. It wanted to identify the most technologically efficient and economically viable photoelectrode cells, capable of producing chemicals on a continuous basis. If successful, this could help to inform the future direction of this critically important area of research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo do this, we compared different types of photoelectrochemical cells,\u201d explains PEC_Flow project coordinator Csaba Jan\u00e1ky<\/strong> from the University of Szeged in Hungary. \u201cWe wanted to assess them not only from a technological and scientific standpoint, but also from an economic perspective.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Jan\u00e1ky and his team therefore set about gathering data and analysis on different types of cells. After thorough examination, four different cell configurations were whittled down to two, after which an extensive technoeconomic analysis was performed. Issues such as market and investment potential were examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end, we were left with one configuration,\u201d says Jan\u00e1ky<\/strong>. \u201cIn this prototype, the solar cell was decoupled from the electrolyser part. Our findings were that this solution could be potentially a lot more economically competitive than an integrated solution, taking into account current state-of-the-art technology.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Future industrial processes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The results of the PEC_Flow project suggest therefore that the most feasible path for developing industrially viable solar-driven CO2 conversion technologies at present is to decouple the photovoltaic cell from the electrolyser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as importantly though, the project also helped to identify the knowledge and technological gaps that must be bridged, if we are to one day develop efficient integrated photoelectrochemical cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is important, because we will need multiple parallel CO2<\/sub> utilisation technologies over the next few decades,\u201d notes Jan\u00e1ky<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A number of sectors could greatly benefit one day from such advances in solar fuel technology. The chemical industry for example, which produces a lot of emissions, could use photoelectrochemical systems to capture CO2<\/sub>, and convert it into useful products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next steps include working on this decoupled approach with industrial partners, and moving gradually towards market readiness. \u201cThis would involve assembling a smaller-scale prototype, which could then be scaled up further,\u201d adds Jan\u00e1ky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More fundamental research into addressing the scientific and technological bottlenecks in developing integrated photoelectrochemical cells will also continue to be carried out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our fossil fuel-based economy is unsustainable. The energy and chemicals we produce from oil and natural gas continue to release billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere every year, contributing to climate change. In order to transition towards an economy based on the principles of circularity and sustainability, we desperately need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Solar fuel technology could one day turn carbon dioxide \u2013 a key greenhouse gas \u2013 into a useful industrial feedstock. This could help us to move away from fossil fuels, and towards achieving a truly circular economy","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[10744,10416,10408,10743],"supplier":[2317,18485],"class_list":["post-105773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-circulareconomy","tag-greenchemistry","tag-useco2","supplier-european-commission","supplier-university-of-szeged"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105773"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=105773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}