Wireless Device Makes Clean Fuel from Sunlight, CO2 and Water
An Anonymous Coward writes:
Wireless device makes clean fuel from sunlight, CO2 and water:
The device, developed by a team from the University of Cambridge, is a significant step toward achieving artificial photosynthesis - a process mimicking the ability of plants to convert sunlight into energy. It is based on an advanced 'photosheet' technology and converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and formic acid - a storable fuel that can be either be used directly or be converted into hydrogen.
The results, reported in the journal Nature Energy, represent a new method for the conversion of carbon dioxide into clean fuels. The wireless device could be scaled up and used on energy 'farms' similar to solar farms, producing clean fuel using sunlight and water.
[...] "It's been difficult to achieve artificial photosynthesis with a high degree of selectivity, so that you're converting as much of the sunlight as possible into the fuel you want, rather than be left with a lot of waste," said first author Dr Qian Wang from Cambridge's Department of Chemistry.
[...] this new technology is more robust and produces clean fuel that is easier to store and shows potential for producing fuel products at scale. The test unit is 20 square centimetres in size, but the researchers say that it should be relatively straightforward to scale it up to several square metres. In addition, the formic acid can be accumulated in solution, and be chemically converted into different types of fuel.
"We were surprised how well it worked in terms of its selectivity - it produced almost no by-products," said Wang. "Sometimes things don't work as well as you expected, but this was a rare case where it actually worked better."
Journal Reference:
Qian Wang, Julien Warnan, Santiago Rodriguez-Jimenez, et al. Molecularly engineered photocatalyst sheet for scalable solar formate production from carbon dioxide and water, Nature Energy (DOI: 10.1038/s41560-020-0678-6)
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.