The push for nations to achieve the Paris Agreement’s targets of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as well as the European Green Deal and REPowerEU plan, has mandated that greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 45% by 2030 and must reach net zero by 2050.
To achieve this, burning fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases and is a significant contributor to human-driven climate change, must be replaced with alternative renewable energy sources. Solar energy, which converts sunlight directly into electricity, has emerged as a key component of renewable energy strategies. Yet, there is an other method of producing clean energy using the Sun’s light.
Photocatalysis is the use of sunlight as an initiation energy source to drive chemical conversions, such as the artificial splitting of water to create hydrogen. Photocatalysis takes its guidance from organisms such as plants that convert sunlight to chemical energy throughout a process called photosynthesis. The objective of net zero emissions by 2050 would become more than a pipe dream if this hydrogen were to replace natural gases as a fuel source. By doing this, atmospheric carbon and greenhouse gases would be released less.
A recent study in the journal Global Challenges examines three case studies including photocatalysts on various scales, ranging from a lab experiment to an outdoor pilot program to a huge industrial plant-sized panel system. Pablo Jiménez Calvo, a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, is the paper’s corresponding author. He said that photocatalysis is a promising method for creating renewable energy because it merely uses light and catalysts to transform solar energy, the most plentiful renewable energy source, into chemical energy. Clean, effective, and long-lasting describe this approach.
He continued by saying that photocatalytic processes can result in the production of molecules like fine chemicals, medicines, and agrochemicals as well as fuels like hydrogen or alcohols. However the process must overcome formidable obstacles, including as scalability, efficiency, and affordability, in order to produce enough energy to relieve the load of fossil fuels.
The goal of the experiments looked at in the paper, according to Jiménez-Calvo, was to transfer technologies to create hydrogen on a wider scale. Low photocatalytic activity, problems with band gap energy, rapid recombination of photo-generated electrons and holes, stability issues, inefficient light consumption, and cost are some of the difficulties that need to be overcome in photocatalysis, according to the author. The effectiveness of photocatalysts and their practical uses are constrained by these considerations, he added. It takes reevaluating existing trends, ideas, and approaches to improve the activity of the technology to overcome them.
Jiménez-Calvo provided a detailed analysis of the findings from the three investigations and their potential implications for the widespread use of artificial water splitting. He claimed that a compact reactor with better engineering features had been created on a laboratory scale. “Compared to past research, this resulted in higher rates of photoproduction of hydrogen. Superior quantum yields indicate that the rise is most likely the result of decreased process losses, such as improved light absorption in photonics.
The pilot device was tested in an outdoor environment, demonstrating the photocatalyst technology’s viability in such settings. And lastly, Dr. Jiménez-Calvo said, “Japanese researchers developed a huge panel system that, although being outside and creating significantly more hydrogen, achieved a similar solar-to-hydrogen conversion rate as the lab scale.” This project serves as a significant proof-of-concept for photocatalytic science.
The three investigations showed that various scales of the most recent technological development. The data “supports the potential for additional investment and scaling up of photocatalysis technology because photocatalysis has progressed beyond the pilot and laboratory stages, as demonstrated by successful panel array plant installations,” added Jiménez-Calvo. In addition to being a source of clean, renewable energy, photocatalysis is also adaptable, with uses in the field of water and air purification as well as the potential to produce energy-storing materials in the form of superconductors that are lifted from their ground energy state by sunshine.
“Photocatalysis has the potential to completely revolutionize the energy industry. “Photocatalysis can improve its technological readiness level and develop into a workable, effective, clean, and sustainable energy option for the future with the right tactics and technological advancements,” Jiménez-Calvo said.
