Energy Conversion: Make carbonate not carbon dioxide
Scientists developed a technique to avoid CO2 in energy conversion processes with carbon-containing fuels
© Nano-Institut / LMU
Inspired by the way shellfishes capture carbon dioxide, LMU scientists at the Nano-Institute Munich developed the vision to transform a carbon-containing fuel into a carbon-free fuel without releasing CO2 but capture carbon as carbonate. They chose alkaline methanol and devised a light-triggered system, which efficiently produced hydrogen and carbonate in the form of tiny stones. They introduced a novel multi-layer device to make maximum use of the incident light and the catalysts.
Dr. Yiou Wang, who performed most of the experimental work is a Fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation working at the Chair for Photonics and Optoelectronics led by Prof. Jochen Feldmann. He remembers: ‘I had two moments of great excitement: First when I saw the hydrogen bubbles emerging on the catalyst and second when I noticed the carbonate crystals precipitating from the solution.’ Dr. Jacek Stolarczyk, an expert in artificial photosynthesis, adds: ‘Light is an excellent means of triggering energy conversion reactions, more convenient to use than heat and pressure.’
A possible application is the in-situ production of required hydrogen from low-cost alcohols, which avoids the risks to store and transport hydrogen before use in fuel cells. Such a carbon-neutral and light-triggered process produces hydrogen safely and efficiently, which could enable scalable fabrication and hold promise for broad and practical applications. Prof. Jochen Feldmann states: ‘Avoiding CO2-emission by binding the carbon in carbonates might generally become an important concept when using carbon-containing fuels.’
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