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Title: Design of an artificial photosynthetic system for production of alcohols in high concentration from CO2

Journal Article · · Energy & Environmental Science
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ee02783g· OSTI ID:1418285
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Material Science Division
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Material Science Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
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Artificial photosynthesis of liquid fuels is a potential source for clean energy. Alcohols are particularly attractive products because of their high energy density and market value per amount of energy input. The major challenges in photo/electrochemical synthesis of alcohols from sunlight, water and CO2 are low product selectivity, high membrane fuel-crossover losses, and high cost of product separation from the electrolyte. Here we propose an artificial photosynthesis scheme for direct synthesis and separation to almost pure ethanol with minimum product crossover using saturated salt electrolytes. The ethanol produced in the saturated salt electrolytes can be readily phase separated into a microemulsion, which can be collected as pure products in a liquid–liquid extractor. A novel design of an integrated artificial photosynthetic system is proposed that continuously produces >90 wt% pure ethanol using a polycrystalline copper cathode at a current density of 0.85 mA cm-2. The annual production rate of >90 wt% ethanol using such a photosynthesis system operating at 10 mA cm-2 (12% solar-to-fuel (STF) efficiency) can be 15.27 million gallons per year per square kilometer, which corresponds to 7% of the industrial ethanol production capacity of California.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0004993
OSTI ID:
1418285
Journal Information:
Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Issue 1; ISSN 1754-5692
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 41 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (4)

Catecholamine-functionalized graphene as a biomimetic redox shuttle for solar water oxidation journal January 2017
Photoinduced energy transfer in carbazole–BODIPY dyads journal January 2018
Mechanistic insights into electrochemical reduction of CO 2 over Ag using density functional theory and transport models journal October 2017
Nanotechnology in Agriculture: New Opportunities and Perspectives book September 2018

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY