STTR Phase I: Highly Efficient and Robust Photocatalyst Systems for CO2 Conversion to Valuable Fuels Using Renewable Solar

STTR 第一阶段：高效、稳健的光催化剂系统，利用可再生太阳能将二氧化碳转化为有价值的燃料

• 批准号: 2052174
• 负责人: Saemin Choi
• 金额: $ 25.59万
• 依托单位: NX FUELS, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2052174&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Highly; Efficient; Robust

The broader impact/commercial potential of this STTR Phase I project is in reducing carbon dioxide emissions while delivering a sustainable solution to meet the global demand for green fuels and chemicals. Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas linked to climate change and environmental concerns. Solutions to sequester carbon dioxide underground and in deep oceans are expensive, and the long-term effectiveness, safety, and associated environmental impacts are unclear. This project allows highly efficient conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable green products using only renewable solar energy. The cost-effective, sustainable production of green fuels utilizing carbon dioxide as a feedstock will be key to reducing emissions and lowering dependency on fossil-based sources. Low-cost green fuels, such as methane, are expected to accelerate the penetration of a $30 billion market for the transportation and power generation sectors.This project addresses the fact that the high stability of carbon dioxide and conventional approaches to convert these molecules involve high temperature, high pressure, and/or extremely reactive reagents, rendering them expensive and harmful to the environment. Artificial photosynthesis is a promising approach to convert carbon dioxide and water into commercially valuable chemical products, such as methane, methanol, formic acid and syngas, using only solar energy. This project will assess the technical feasibility of a revolutionary artificial photosynthesis system based on photocatalyst wafers prepared using magnetron sputter epitaxy (MSE) to generate green methane from carbon dioxide in a single step. The proposed project utilizes low-cost, scalable processes to prepare photocatalyst wafers with high efficiencies and stabilities that can be extrapolated to 20+ years of operation lifetime. The key challenge is to effectively combine the novel carbon dioxide reduction functionality with the unique light harvesting and water oxidation platform, and optimize the operating parameters to enhance the overall system efficiency and robustness. The goal is to demonstrate photocatalyst wafers with 10+% solar to fuel efficiencies, unprecedented long-term stability in the carbon dioxide reduction process, and a bench-scale prototype for performance validation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该STTR I期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是减少二氧化碳排放，同时提供可持续的解决方案，以满足全球对绿色燃料和化学物质的需求。二氧化碳是与气候变化和环境问题有关的主要温室气体。隔离二氧化碳地下和深海的解决方案很昂贵，并且尚不清楚长期有效性，安全性，安全性和相关的环境影响。该项目允许仅使用可再生太阳能将二氧化碳高效地转化为有价值的绿色产品。利用二氧化碳作为原料的成本效益，可持续的绿色燃料生产将是减少排放和降低对基于化石的来源的依赖的关键。低成本的绿色燃料，例如甲烷，预计将加速300亿美元的运输和发电部门市场的渗透率。该项目解决了以下事实：二氧化碳的高稳定性和传统方法可以转化这些分子，涉及高压，高压，高压，高压和/或极具反应性的纪念物，使其昂贵，并使环境变得昂贵。人工光合作用是一种仅使用太阳能，将二氧化碳和水转换为商业有价值的化学产品的有前途的方法，例如甲烷，甲醇，甲醇，甲酸和同性气。该项目将根据使用磁控溅射外延（MSE）制备的光催化剂晶片来评估革命性人造光合系统的技术可行性，以单步从二氧化碳中生成绿色甲烷。拟议的项目利用低成本的可扩展过程来制备具有高效率和稳定性的光催化剂晶圆，可以将其推断到20多年的运行寿命。关键挑战是有效地将新型二氧化碳还原功能与独特的光收集和水氧化平台相结合，并优化工作参数以提高整体系统效率和鲁棒性。目的是展示具有10+％太阳能的光催化剂晶状体，以燃料效率，二氧化碳降低过程中前所未有的长期稳定性，以及用于绩效验证的基准尺度原型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过评估了基金会的智力效果，并以评估委员会的评估值得一提。