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Researchers in Switzerland have conducted a promising laboratory experiment and scaled it up to a real-life example of how we can use solar energy to produce green hydrogen.
Researchers in Switzerland have conducted a promising laboratory experiment and scaled it up to a real-life example of how we can use solar energy to produce green hydrogen. Their system has overcome the 1 kilowatt ceiling desired for green hydrogen production and opens up new opportunities for commercialization.
According to new research published by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) Nature EnergyThis efficient converter, which converts solar energy into fuel, acts as an efficient artificial photosynthesis system. It also produces useful oxygen and heat byproducts.
“This is the first systematic demonstration of solar hydrogen production,” Sophia Haussener, head of the Renewable Energy Science and Engineering Laboratory at the EPFL School of Engineering, said in a press release. “Unlike typical lab demonstrations, it includes all the supporting devices and components, so it gives us a better idea of the energy efficiency you can expect when you look at the entire system, not just the device itself.”
To make all this happen, the dish antenna-like system was designed to act like a tree. The 23-foot-diameter antenna concentrates the power of solar radiation about 1,000 times. When water is fed into the system, a connected reactor uses photo-electrochemical cells powered by concentrated solar radiation to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The process, called artificial photosynthesis, also generates heat that can pass through a heat exchanger to reach a useful end state.
And it all works without producing carbon dioxide, making it a scalable example of green hydrogen production. Typically, hydrogen used as fuel is produced by the breakdown of natural gas, which unfortunately produces polluting CO.2.
Although the primary products of artificial photosynthesis are hydrogen and heat, oxygen produced as “waste” may also serve a purpose. In a first example of commercialization, the university’s SoHHytec unit is partnering with a Swiss metal fabrication company to use hydrogen for metal annealing processes, oxygen for medical applications in nearby hospitals, and heat for the factory’s hot water needs.
Source: Port Altele
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