CALSOL · Carbon based Artificial Leaf for SOLar fuel production
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-10-01 → 2020-09-30
- EU contribution
- €125,423
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Carbon based Artificial Leaf for SOLar fuel production
The newly formed European Commission accommodated the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 7 (affordable and clean energy) and 13 (climate action) into what is now referred to as the European Green Deal with the chief-aim of being the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Before the European Green Deal, the goals for 2020 were: (1) to cut greenhouse gasses by 20% (from the 1990 levels), (2) increase the share of renewables to a total of 20% and (3) improve the energy efficiency by 20% which were challenging to achieve. However, the current 2030 action plan is planning: (1) to further cut the greenhouse gasses by 40% (from the 1990 levels), (2) raise the share of renewables to 32% and (3) enhance the energy efficiency by 32.5%. Such ambitious goals can be met only by technologies that make use of renewable energy. Sun driven electrochemical reactions, such as (1) photocatalytic environmental remediation, (2) photoelectrochemical water splitting to generate hydrogen fuel and (3) photoelectrochemical carbon dioxide reduction to produce chemical feedstocks, will have the utmost importance in achieving sustainability. The electron-hole pair generated by illuminated semiconductors are the key in unlocking the full potential of photoelectrochemistry. Further on, the attention was focused on finding cheap and abundant materials such as polymeric carbon nitride which has been in the spotlight for more than a decade. In this respect, the action at-hand aimed at: 1. Designing a new carbon nitride with a suitable electron band structure 2. Explore multi-site carbon dioxide reaction reaction at metal/carbon nitride composites
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions have seen a steady increase since the industrial revolution. Recent estimates show that 496 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide will be released in the atmosphere between 2010 and 2060. To address climate change, EU needs other technologies that can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions but also that can use the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere to produce chemicals or fuels; looking at carbon dioxide as a carbon feedstock rather than an undesired waste.Small organic fuel molecules (e.g. formic acid, methanol) can be produced via photoelectrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. Materials that can harvest sunlight to electrochemically reduce carbon dioxide are the “Holy Grail” of energy sustainable societies; they have the potential to reproduce what nature learned in billions of years: photosynthesis. The action at hand aims at creating a carbon based arificial leaf that can convert carbon dioxide into solar fuels.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI · BucurestiCoordinatorRomania
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union