Fuels from Sunlight

To access the Fuels from Sunlight FOA (reference number DE-FOA-0000214) please direct your browser to: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/PublicSearch/Public_Opportunities.aspx and search for “Fuels from Sunlight” in the search box (note that the search flag should be set to “Title” or “Title/Description”).

After nearly 3 billion years of evolution, nature can effectively convert sunlight into energy-rich chemical fuels using the abundant feedstocks of water and carbon dioxide.  All fuels used today to power vehicles and create electricity, whether from fossil or biomass resources, are ultimately derived from photosynthesis.  While biofuels are renewable resources that avoid the environmental consequences of burning the sequestered carbon of fossil fuels, their scalability and sustainability remain a concern.   Furthermore, the overall energy efficiency of converting sunlight to plant material and then converting biomass into fuels is low.

The natural photosynthetic apparatus is a remarkable machine, but plants and photosynthetic microbes were not designed to meet human energy needs – much of the energy captured from the sun is necessarily devoted to the life processes of the plants.  Imagine the potential energy benefits if we could generate fuels directly from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water in a manner analogous to the natural system, but without the need to maintain life processes.  The impact of replacing fossil fuels with fuels generated directly by sunlight would be immediate and revolutionary.  Recognizing this, the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) report, New Science for a Secure and Sustainable Energy Future, lists the production of fuels directly from sunlight as one its three strategic goals for which transformational science breakthroughs are urgently needed.

Basic research has already provided enormous advances in our understanding of the subtle and complex photochemistry associated with the natural photosynthetic system.  Similar advances have occurred using inorganic photo-catalytic methods to split water or reduce carbon dioxide.  Yet, we still lack sufficient knowledge to design solar fuel generation systems with the required efficiency and sustainability for economic viability.  The Fuels from Sunlight Hub will develop an effective solar energy to chemical fuel conversion system.  The system should operate at an overall efficiency and produce fuel of sufficient energy content to enable transition from bench-top discovery to proof-of-concept prototyping.  The magnitude of this challenge is daunting, but not insurmountable, and will require that the successful Hub draw expertise and premier scientific talent from the disciplines of chemistry, physics, materials sciences, biology, and engineering.

Critical issues for the Fuels from Sunlight Hub include the following:

Understanding and designing catalytic complexes or solids that generate chemical fuel from carbon dioxide and/or water.  This research would necessarily be coordinated with complementary efforts to comprehend and design other essential elements required for the overall conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels.  These include solar photon capture, energy transfer, charge separation and electron transport.  A fundamental concern is the design and discovery of materials that will be cost effective and sustainable in the future economy.

Integration of all essential elements from light capture to fuel formation into an effective solar fuel generation system.   This would require research and methodology that seek to understand complex issues of the system as an operating unit.  Unlike natural photosynthesis, successful systems within the scope of this FOA should function efficiently at full solar flux; hence, the efficacy of system components should be evaluated in consideration of such a demanding environment.

Pragmatic evaluation of the solar fuel system under development.  While a robust solar fuels industry does not presently exist for deployment of resulting technologies, the Hub should have the capacity to determine the practicality of a solar fuel system as a prototype and as a potential product in the marketplace.

More detailed information regarding research needs for the production of fuels from sunlight can be found in two of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Basic Research Needs workshop reports: Basic Research Needs for Solar Energy Utilization and Basic Research Needs: Catalysis for Energy. In addition, the conversion of sunlight into chemical fuels requires significant progress in meeting the scientific grand challenges described in the BESAC report, Directing Matter and Energy: Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination. All of these reports can be found at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/list.html.

More than references, these reports are the end product of a process that defined the scope of the Fuels from Sunlight Hub. Through these Basic Research Needs workshops, BES solicited extensive input from the scientific and technical community, including professionals from universities, national laboratories, industry, and non-profits, on the specific barriers to radical progress towards artificial photosynthesis. A description of this process and the broad nature of the input collected is also available at http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/files/BRN_workshops.pdf.

Energy Efficient Building Systems Design

via Department of Energy – Research Areas.

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