Production of solar fuels: Storing the sun's heat at 1200 degrees

23-Sep-2024 - The ETH spin-off Synhelion has recently inaugurated the world's first industrial plant for the production of solar fuels in Germany. The heart of the plant contains a piece of Empa technology: Together with Synhelion, Empa researchers have developed a material for the high-temperature thermal ...

Why do just one experiment at a time when you can do ten?

Synthetic fuels and chemicals from CO₂: Ten experiments in parallel

28-Jun-2024 - Empa researchers have developed an automated system, which allows them to research catalysts, electrodes, and reaction conditions for CO₂ electrolysis up to ten times faster. The system is complemented by an open-source software for data analysis. If you mix fossil fuel with a little oxygen and ...

Can we undo the burning of oil, gas and coal?

Platform chemicals from CO2: Defects welcome

08-Mar-2024 - Is it possible to convert CO2 back to fuels or other useful chemicals? Absolutely – but not in a very targeted way just yet. Empa researcher Alessandro Senocrate is looking at defects in materials that will help us achieve this goal. Can we undo the burning of oil, gas and coal? With a renewable ...

Sustainable fuels and base chemicals for Switzerland

Launch of reFuel.ch: "reFuel.ch" is investigating how fossil fuels can be replaced by sustainable energy sources

13-Dec-2023 - The aim of thereFuel.chconsortium is to develop robust supply paths for sustainable fuels and basechemicals for Switzerland. The consortium is funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) as part of the SWEET funding program and held its kick-off event on 8 December 2023. Nine Swiss ...

A next step towards climate-friendly fuels

Solar technology from Synhelion to receive Innosuisse funding

08-Jul-2021 - Synhelion and Empa are conducting a joint research project, co-funded by the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse, to further develop a high-temperature energy storage solution that is a key component in the production of climate-friendly solar fuels. The project will enable the cost-effective and ...

Biofuels and sophisticated materials cycles thanks to bio-templating

Mini power plants from coated blue-green algae

31-Aug-2020 - Blue-green algae are among the oldest living creatures on Earth and have perfected the use of sunlight over billions of years. Empa scientists have now equipped these humble unicellular organisms with semiconductor coatings to create mini power plants, which supply biofuels and are ...

Visualizing chemical reactions

On the way to synthetic fuels

10-Jan-2020 - Researchers at the joint EPFL-Empa lab in Sion have developed a reactor system and an analysis method that has allowed them to observe the real-time production of synthetic natural gas from CO2 and H2 for the first time. Infrared (IR) thermography is used to determine the temperature of humans ...

Most biofuels are not 'green'

New data on the biofuel ecobalance

28-Sep-2012 - In recent years, the demand for supposedly environmentally friendly biofuels has increased significantly worldwide; on the one hand, this has resulted in the increased cultivation of so-called energy plants and, on the other hand, innovative production methods for the second generation of ...

Towards artificial photosynthesis for solar hydrogen generation

Algal protein gives boost to electrochemical water splitting

09-Jan-2012 - Water splitting in photo-electrochemical cells to yield hydrogen is a promising way to sustainable fuels. A team of Swiss and US scientists now made major progress in developing highly efficient electrodes – made of an algal protein, thus mimicking a central step in natural ...

Hydrogen powered prototype vessel for inland waterways

A high-tech propulsion system for the next 100 years

02-Sep-2011 - Environmentally friendly fuels are not just of interest for use in cars. The University of Birmingham has been operating a canal boat with a fuel cell drive for three years now. In the world of shipbuilding, however, different rules apply than those in the automobile or aircraft manufacturing ...