Photonic fibre technologies for solar fuels catalysis

随着人们对当前二氧化碳水平及其与气候变化的关系越来越关注，研究需要建立一种方法来防止更多的二氧化碳进入大气层。电力生产是向大气排放二氧化碳的最大贡献者，其次是工业过程和运输。因此，建立技术，在这些排放物到达大气层之前将其提取出来，被认为是最可行的解决方案。既然在过去十多年中开发了各种类型的二氧化碳捕获技术，有人可能会问，为什么我们仍然没有看到这些技术推出呢？这里有几个原因：-昂贵：有各种捕获类型，但每一种都消耗了工厂本身产生的40%的电力。这减少了终端用户的可用能量，例如，公众，这是一个问题，因为我们是一个越来越依赖技术的国家。更长时间的发电厂运行可能会弥补能源损失，以维持不断增长的需求，但这将增加能源成本，以支付额外的生产成本。尺寸：不同的技术有不同的尺寸要求。一些可以改造现有的工厂，因此需要为此提供空间，而其他只能应用于大型工厂，需要时间进行开发和建设，并且是一条全面昂贵的路线。CO2是什么？：捕获二氧化碳是一回事，但之后如何处理是另一回事。研究人员继续关注其在地下枯竭的气/油储层中的储存，但在其储存的过程中存在显著的成本影响，即，将二氧化碳转化为一种有价值的可重复使用的产品，随后关闭循环将是最好的选择。该提案汇集了南安普顿的领先化学家，物理学家和工程师，以开发一种新的最先进的技术，不仅将二氧化碳转化为合成燃料，而且使用太阳能。优化的催化活性位点被整合到光子纤维中，促进了CO2直接转化为合成燃料的光化学转化。除此之外，计算模型和模拟将提供物理洞察力，以评估和优化用于合成燃料发电的光子纤维催化转化器技术。这将随后支持实验室规模的反应器的开发，这将证明这种最先进的技术的可扩展性。学术，工业和公共部门的参与将促进进一步的扩展机会，并鼓励参与该计划的早期职业研究人员的发展。该计划的成果不仅将导致新知识的发展，而且更重要的是在能源部门产生影响的机会。

With increasing concerns over current CO2 levels and their association with climate change, research needs to establish a way to prevent further CO2 from reaching the atmosphere. Power production is the highest contributor of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere following by industrial process and transportation. Therefore, establishing technologies that extract the CO2 from these emissions before it reaches the atmosphere is considered the most viable solution. Since various types of CO2 capturing technologies have been developed over the past decade or so, one might ask, why is it that we are still not seeing these technologies rolled out yet? Here are a couple of reasons:- Expensive: There are various capture types but each of them consumed up to 40% of the power that is generated within the plant itself. This reduces the available energy for end-users, e.g., the general public, which is problematic since we are a nation that is increasingly dependent on technology. Longer power plants operation could top up energy lost to maintain increasing demands but this would increase the cost of energy to cover the additional production costs.- Size: Different technologies have different size requirements. A number can be retrofitted to existing plants, so space needs to be available for this, and other can only be applied to large plants to takes time for development and construction and is an all-round expensive route to take.- What about the CO2?: Capturing the CO2 is one thing but what to do with it after is another issue. Researchers continue to focus on its storage in underground depleted gas/oil reservoirs yet there are significant cost implications which occur in the run up to its storage, i.e., transport and injection, etc. Conversion of CO2 into a valuable and reusable product which subsequently closes the cycle would be the best option.This proposal brings together leading chemists, physicists and engineers at Southampton to develop a novel state-of-the-art technology that not only converts CO2 into a synthetic fuel but does so using solar energy. Optimised catalytic active sites incorporated into photonic fibres promote photochemical conversion of CO2 directly into synthetic fuel. Alongside this, computational models and simulations will provide physical insight to evaluate and optimise photonic-fibre catalytic converter technology for synthetic fuel generation. This will subsequently support the development of a lab-scale reactor which will demonstrate the scalability of this state-of-the-art technology.Engagement across the academic, industrial and public sectors will promote further opportunities for expansion and encourage development of early career researchers involved with the programme. The outcomes of the programme will lead to the development of not only new knowledge, but more importantly opportunities for impact within the energy sector.