Solar fuels via engineering innovation

寻求可持续资源以满足不断增长的全球人口的需求是本世纪人类面临的主要挑战之一，到2050年全球能源需求将翻一番。这是在二氧化碳排放量增加和相关气候变化的背景下制定的，以及最近英国第四次碳预算中提出的到2025年将二氧化碳排放量减少50%的雄心勃勃的目标。太阳能可用于通过称为光催化还原的过程将CO2转化为燃料。利用二氧化碳作为替代燃料是解决不可再生化石燃料消耗和全球变暖问题的有吸引力的策略，同时提供可持续，安全和有用的碳捕获。将二氧化碳大规模、经济地光转化为太阳能燃料是一项艰巨的科学和技术挑战。现有的方法由于缺乏适当的反应器设计而导致生产率低，该反应器设计能够有效地将光、反应物和合适的光催化剂引入同时接触，并实现随后的产物分离和未反应的CO2的再循环。在这一竞技场中的最新进展集中于通过纳米技术的进步开发新型催化剂。尽管在材料科学方面取得了这些突破，但优化CO2光反应器设计的工程挑战需要一个阶跃变化转换，以达到其在整体工艺性能中的关键作用。我们的愿景是设计新型光反应器，实现高效的碳氢化合物转化和二氧化碳分离，用于太阳能燃料生产。这将通过化学工程师和化学家之间的综合方法来实现，通过反应器创新来加强CO2光还原过程，从而提供替代未来能源选择。

The quest for sustainable resources to meet the demands of a rising global population is one of the main challenges for humanity this century, with global energy needs set to double by 2050. This is set against the backdrop of increasing CO2 emissions and associated climate change, and the ambitious target set out in the recent UK Fourth Carbon Budget of a 50% cut in CO2 emissions by 2025. Solar energy can be used to drive the conversion of CO2 into fuels via a process called photocatalytic reduction. The utilisation of CO2 as an alternative fuel represents an attractive strategy to address both the consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels and global warming, while offering sustainable, safe and useful carbon capture. Large-scale, economic photoconversion of CO2 into solar fuels represents a formidable scientific and technical challenge. Existing processes suffer low productivity due to a lack of appropriate reactor designs able to efficiently introduce light, reactants and a suitable photocatalyst into simultaneous contact, and to effect subsequent product separation and recycling of unreacted CO2. Recent progress in this arena has focused on the development of novel catalysts through advances in nanotechnology. Despite such breakthroughs in materials science, the engineering challenge of optimal CO2 photoreactor design needs a step change transformation to reach its crucial role in the overall process performance. Our vision is to engineer novel photoreactors that can achieve efficient hydrocarbon conversion and separation from CO2 for solar fuel production. This will be achieved via an integrated approach between chemical engineers and chemists to intensify the process of CO2 photoreduction through reactor innovation, and thus, provide alternative future energy options.