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Compact pilot plant for solar to liquid fuels production

Green Car Congress

Partners from Germany and Finland in the SOLETAIR project are building a compact pilot plant for the production of gasoline, diesel and kerosene from solar energy, regenerative hydrogen and carbon dioxide. An electrolysis unit developed by Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) produces the required hydrogen by means of solar power.

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Here’s how – and why – EVs and solar are connected

Baua Electric

EV owners are more likely to add solar panels to their homes, according to a new US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study – here’s why. And conversely, owning photovoltaic panels also has a bearing on whether a homeowner buys an electric vehicle, but not as strongly.

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SOLETAIR project produces first 200 liters of synthetic fuel from solar power and atmospheric CO2

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The SOLETAIR project ( earlier post ) has produced its first 200 liters of synthetic fuel from solar energy and the air’s carbon dioxide via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. An electrolysis unit developed by Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) uses solar power to produce the required hydrogen.

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Here’s how utility-scale solar farms may just help save the bees

Baua Electric

Photo: Argonne National Laboratory A five-year study of solar farms planted with wildflowers and native grasses discovered that native bees showed a 20-fold increase in numbers. The scientists collected data from two Enel Green Power North America solar farms in southern Minnesota built on retired agricultural land.

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Columbia University engineers make breakthrough in understanding electroreduction of CO2 for conversion to electrofuels

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Recent research in electrocatalytic CO 2 conversion points the way to using CO 2 as a feedstock and renewable electricity as an energy supply for the synthesis of different types of fuel and value-added chemicals such as ethylene, ethanol, and propane. 1802256115.

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New photochemical diode artificial photosynthesis system doubles efficiency of solar water splitting

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As reported in an open-access paper in Nature Communications, the wafer-level photochemical diode arrays exhibited solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of ~3.3% Previous direct solar water splitters have achieved a little more than 1 percent stable solar-to-hydrogen efficiency in fresh or saltwater. in neutral (pH?~?7.0)

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Georgia Tech team develops highly efficient multi-phase catalyst for SOFCs and other energy storage and conversion systems

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The catalyst is also readily applicable to other energy storage and conversion systems, including metal-air batteries, supercapacitors, electrolyzers, dye-sensitized solar cells, and photocatalysis. An open-access paper on their work appears in the journal Joule. This work demonstrates that a multi-phase catalyst coating (?