From solar energy to fuel: A holistic artificial photosynthesis platform to produce viable solar fuels (REFINE)

REFINE开发并展示了一种人工光合作用系统，通过结合黑暗和光依赖反应直接生产高能量密度和基本化学品，如酒精。为了实现这一目标，提出了在先进的生物精炼系统中通过CO2捕获和转化将氢直接储存为烃。在这种情况下，由水光电解产生的氢气与捕获的CO2结合，并直接进料到生物培养中，选择性地生产异丙醇和丁醇作为高能太阳能燃料，而驱动这种激进技术系统的唯一能量输入是阳光。为了实现这种人工光合作用系统并推向市场，有必要融合材料科学、生物技术、工程和社会科学领域。项目组织是多中心的，在不同的层面上运作;从原材料供应考虑，社会接受，材料工程和纳米结构到设备组装和适用性。REFINE的真正融合性质提供了一种全面的、突破性的方法，可以解决我们现代社会的主要挑战，例如大量的二氧化碳排放以及无法进行有效和广泛接受的二氧化碳回收。REFINE的愿景远远超出了本申请中提出的4年活动。尽管如此，REFINE仍然是一种多维度方法来应对关键的科学和社会挑战的种子。

REFINE develops and demonstrates a system of artificial photosynthesis by combining both dark and light-dependent reactions for the direct production of high energy density and essential chemicals, such as alcohols. To achieve this, a direct hydrogen storage into hydrocarbons through CO2 capture and transformation in an advanced bio-refining system is proposed. In this, hydrogen produced by water photoelectrolysis is combined with captured CO2 and directly fed to biocultures that selectively produce isopropanol and butanol as high energy solar fuels, and the only energy input to drive this radical technological system is sunlight. To realise and bring to the market such a system of artificial photosynthesis it is necessary to converge the fields of materials science, biotechnology, engineering and social sciences. The project organisation is multicentred and operates at different levels; from raw materials supply considerations, societal acceptance, materials engineering and nanostructuring to device assembling and applicability. The true converging nature of REFINE provides a holistic, ground-breaking approach that addresses major challenges of our modern societies such as the extensive CO2 emissions and inability for efficient and widely accepted CO2 recycling. The vision in REFINE extends well beyond the 4-year activities proposed in this application. Still, REFINE is the seed for a multidimensional approach to critical scientific and societal challenges.