STTR Phase II: HI-LIGHT - Solar Thermal Chemical Reactor Technology for Converting CO2 to Hydrocarbons

这项STTR第二期工程的广泛影响/商业潜力，将透过利用二氧化碳废物，带来重大的经济活动。该项目资助的光催化反应器将带来化学储存太阳能量的新方法。每年，人类活动向大气中释放380亿吨二氧化碳。维度能源公司设想了一个未来，我们可以利用这些二氧化碳作为碳氢化合物燃料和化学中间体的工业生产的原料，利用太阳能。该STTR二期项目建议开发HI-Light——一种光热催化反应器平台技术，使二氧化碳和水转化为合成气的速度大大高于目前的水平。该技术的独特之处在于，它使用嵌入式光波导在反应器内均匀分布光，从而提高催化剂的效率，最终提高系统的生产率。在第一阶段，建造了一个功能齐全的集成原型反应器，演示了连续操作，并显示了每克催化剂每小时产生的碳氢化合物克数的生产率比目前的技术水平高出10倍以上。该方法解决了CO2光转化的两个主要障碍：(1)半导体催化剂只能使用能量大于其带隙的光子，这是阳光下存在的光子的一小部分；(2)由于次优的光和反应物输送，这些反应器中的大部分催化剂材料未得到充分利用。我们独特的反应器采用专利的多尺度方法来增强光和试剂直接传输到反应部位，并利用传统上未使用的光子来提供热量并提高反应效率。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this STTR Phase II project will result in significant economic activity through the utilization of waste carbon dioxide. The photo-catalytic reactors funded in the project will lead to novel methods to chemically store energy from the sun. Each year, human activity releases 38 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Dimensional Energy envisions a future in which we can utilize this carbon dioxide as a feedstock for industrial production of hydrocarbon fuels and chemical intermediaries by harnessing the power of the sun. This STTR Phase II project proposes to develop HI-Light - a photo-thermo-catalytic reactor platform technology that enables the conversion of CO2 and water to synthesis gas at a rate significantly greater than the state of the art. The unique feature of the technology is that it uses embedded optical waveguides to evenly distribute light within the reactor, increasing the efficacy of the catalyst and ultimately the productivity of the system. In Phase I a fully functional integrated prototype reactor was constructed, demonstrating continuous operation, and showing productivity in terms of the grams of hydrocarbon produced per gram of catalyst per hour more than 10x greater than the state of the art. The approach solves the two major roadblocks in photo-conversion of CO2: (1) the semiconductor catalysts can only use photons with energies greater than their bandgap, which is a small fraction of those present in sunlight and (2) a large fraction of the catalyst material in these reactors is under-utilized due to sub-optimal light and reactant delivery. Our unique reactor uses a patented, multi-scale approach to enhance light and reagent transport directly to the reaction site and makes use of traditionally unused photons to provide heat and enhance reaction efficiency.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.