Solar Fuels

太阳能是世界上最大的可再生能源；工厂一小时内的太阳辐射超过了目前全球每年的能源需求。现有的太阳能转换技术实现了将太阳能转换为电能（光伏）或热能（太阳能热）。这两项技术都取得了快速的科技进步，并取得了可观的市场增长。例如，到2011年12月，已在100个国家安装了6.4 × 10^10瓦的光伏系统。然而，这些太阳能转换技术有两个明显的限制——缺乏可行的、可扩展的能量存储策略来解决太阳辐射的间歇性问题——以及缺乏将阳光转化为运输燃料的可行机制。鉴于交通运输目前占全球能源需求的约1/3，后一种限制尤其令人担忧。植物光合作用证明了将阳光直接转化为化学燃料的可行性，以化学键的形式储存入射的太阳辐射。然而，天然光合作用相对较低的太阳能到生物质能的转换效率，以及有限的适宜耕地，限制了直接生物质能转换的全球潜力。因此，人工光合作用策略吸引了广泛的兴趣，用于开发能够利用阳光驱动分子燃料合成的化学反应器。利用太阳能生产燃料（H2、HCO2H、CH3OH、CH4等）是目前国际上发展非常迅速的研究领域。它是高度跨学科和多学科的，包括一系列科学上独特的方法，以太阳能驱动的分子燃料合成。虽然太阳能驱动的燃料合成在太阳能利用和可再生燃料合成的总体平行挑战中的潜在作用需要澄清，但人们越来越认识到应对这些挑战的重要性，以及最近太阳能燃料领域令人印象深刻的科学进步，正在推动这一领域迅速进入科学、商业和政策议程。太阳能燃料网络将专注于直接的光驱动燃料合成策略。这些策略包括光电化学、分子和光催化策略。制定这些策略需要汇集一系列学科，包括光电化学，氧化还原催化，分子和半导体光化学，材料，特别是纳米材料设计和合成，光反应器设计和工程以及技术，环境和生命周期分析。虽然该网络将侧重于直接的光驱动过程，但重要的是要认识到，这一领域的进展很可能取决于更广泛的研究领域的进展，包括电催化、生物光合作用过程、半导体光催化和光伏。此外，对太阳能燃料技术应用的评估将需要与替代或补充燃料合成策略相结合，并对其进行评估，这些策略包括水电解、热化学二氧化碳还原、二氧化碳捕获、燃料电池、太阳能电池和替代能源储存策略。因此，该网络将计划与这些研究团体密切合作，包括特别与合适的合作项目和组织组织联合活动——例如，二氧化碳化学和半导体光催化网络，氢和燃料电池，存储，生物能源和太阳能超级中心，EG&S和纳米技术KTN，皇家化学学会等。

BackgroundSolar Energy is the world's largest renewable energy resource; the solar irradiation on the plant in one hour exceeds our current annual global energy demand. Existing solar conversion technologies achieve the conversion of solar energy to electricity (photovoltaics) or heat (solar thermal). Both technologies are making rapid scientific and technical progress, and achieving substantial market growth. For example 6.4 x 10^10 W of photovoltaic (PV) systems had been installed in > 100 countries by December 2011. However these solar conversion technologies have two significant limitations - the lack of a viable, scale-able energy storage strategy to address the intermittency of solar irradiation - and the lack of a viable mechanism to convert sunlight into transportation fuel. Given that transportation currently comprises ~ 1/3 of global energy demand, this latter limitation is of particular concern. Plant photosynthesis demonstrates the viability of the direct conversion of sunlight to chemical fuels, storing the incident solar irradiation in the form of chemical bonds. However the relatively low solar to biomass energy conversion efficiencies of natural photosynthesis, and the limited availability of suitable cultivatable land, limit the global potential of direct bioenergy conversion. As such, artificial photosynthetic strategies are attracting extensive interest for the development of chemical reactors capable of utilising sunlight to drive the synthesis of molecular fuels. The production of fuels (H2, HCO2H, CH3OH, CH4 etc.) using solar energy is now a very rapidly developing research field internationally. It is highly inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary, encompassing a range of scientifically distinct approaches to solar-driven synthesis of molecular fuels. Whilst the potential role(s) of solar-driven fuel synthesis within the overall parallel challenges of solar energy utilisation and renewable fuel synthesis needs to be clarified, there is increasing appreciation of the importance of meeting these challenges, and recent impressive scientific advances in the solar fuels field, are driving this field very rapidly up the scientific, commercial and policy agendas.Network FocusThe Solar Fuels Network will focus on direct photo-driven fuel synthesis strategies. These include photoelectrochemical, molecular and photocatalytic strategies. Developing these strategies requires bringing together a range of disciplines including photoelectrochemistry, redox catalysis, molecular and semiconductor photochemistry, materials and particularly nanomaterials design and synthesis, photoreactor design and engineering as well as technology, environmental and lifecycle analyses. Whilst the Network will focus on direct photo-driven processes, it is important to recognise that advances in this field will most probably be dependent upon advances in wider research fields, including electrocatalysis, biological photosynthetic processes, semiconductor photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Furthermore, assessment of solar fuels technology applications will require interfacing with, and evaluation against, alternative or complementary fuel synthesis strategies including water electrolysis, thermochemical CO2 reduction, CO2 capture, fuel cells, solar cells and alternative energy storage strategies. As such, the Network will plan to work closely with these research communities, including in particular organising joint events with suitable partner programmes and organisations - for example, the CO2 Chemistry and Semiconductor Photocatalysis Networks, the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell, Storage, Bioenergy and Solar Supergen Hubs, the EG&S and Nanotechnology KTN's, the Royal Society of Chemistry etc.