Solar fuels: research and development strategies to accelerate photocatalytic CO₂ conversion into hydrocarbon fuels

Prospects for conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels: the concept of a solar fuels industry.

There is, at present, no solar fuels industry anywhere in the world despite the well-publicized needs to replace our depleting stock of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. Many obstacles have to be overcome in order to store sunlight in the form of chemical potential, and there are severe barriers to surmount in order to produce energy on a massive scale, at a modest price and in a conv...

Solar to fuels conversion technologies: a perspective

To meet increasing energy needs, while limiting greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades, power capacity on a large scale will need to be provided from renewable sources, with solar expected to play a central role. While the focus to date has been on electricity generation via photovoltaic (PV) cells, electricity production currently accounts for only about one-third of total primary en...

Photocatalytic Conversion of CO2 to Hydrocarbon Fuels via Plasmon-Enhanced Absorption and Metallic Interband Transitions

Photocatalytic Conversion of CO2 to Hydrocarbon Fuels via Plasmon-Enhanced Absorption and Metallic Interband Transitions Wenbo Hou, Wei Hsuan Hung, Prathamesh Pavaskar, Alain Goeppert, Mehmet Aykol, and Stephen B. Cronin* Department of Chemistry, Department of Electrical Engineering, and Department of Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, United St...

Electrochemical Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Hydrocarbon Fuels

Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuels from Biomass

Renewable resources can p r o v i d e a s u b s t a n t i a l energy resource f o r t h e Un i ted States. however, i s l i m i t e d t o t h e use o f b i o f u e l s . L i q u i d s are p r e f e r r e d f o r use as t r a n s p o r t a t i o n f u e l s because o f t h e i r h igh energy d e n s i t y and hand l ing ease and safety. feedstock f o r p roduc t ion o f l i q u i d f u e l s [l]...