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Sofi-Brochure.Pdf A Brighter Future The new Solar Fuels Institute (SOFI) An international team of leading scientists has chosen Evanston, Illinois and Telluride, Colorado to host a revolutionary new Solar Fuels Institute (SOFI). The SOFI team, led by internationally-recognized Northwestern The ambitious goal of SOFI is to be a major and University Professor Michael R. Wasielewski, will transform the essential contributor to solving the world's energy fundamental science of artificial photosynthesis into the crisis within a decade. This brochure explains how technology that runs our households, agriculture, and industry. this will be done. The solar fuels developed will use existing infrastructure requiring minimal change in industry and consumer behavior. By mimicking one of nature's most fundamental processes – photosynthesis – SOFI scientists aim to Global energy needs are expected to double over the next 40 fuel the planet sustainably using the ultimate years. Initiatives focused on finding cost-effective, carbon- energy source, the sun. Plants sustain their energy neutral energy sources are critically important for meeting those needs by capturing sunlight and turning it into needs and sustaining earth's balance. nutrients. SOFI scientists aim to convert the sun's energy into clean fuels by following nature's photo- However, excess carbon dioxide (CO ) generated by burning synthetic blueprint. 2 conventional fossil fuels is still in the atmosphere. The technologies SOFI scientists create will turn that CO2 back into clean fuels, thus mitigating the effects of CO2 on climate change. Recycling at its best. How will this change the world? Imagine your children and grandchildren building on the legacy of a sustainable energy solution. Future generations will refine and enhance the capabilities of this new technology. Imagine not passing down What are our global the energy crisis. energy needs? Currently, the world’s total Imagine the news without energy related disaster energy demand is about 15 stories. Recent catastrophic events highlight the trillion watts, or 15 terawatts need for a new approach to meeting the world's (TW). This is projected to energy needs: the meltdown of the Fukushima increase to 30 TW by 2050 nuclear reactor in Japan after the massive tsunami and 45 TW by 2100 as the and earthquake; contaminated water tables and world’s population continues to inadvertent earthquakes caused by natural gas grow and the economies of fracking; and destructive off-shore oil spills. These China, India, Brazil, and the events remind us that business as usual is developing world expand. If the not working. world meets these demands by burning fossil fuels, atmo- In a world fueled by solar energy, extractive spheric CO2 will be ten times technologies of oil, coal, and natural gas are old higher in 2100 than it is today. fashioned and outdated. Nuclear power becomes Such concentrations have not obsolete. Energy waste-product toxins no longer existed for hundreds of millions contaminate rivers and oceans. Planet earth rejuve- of years and coincide with nates. Quality of life improves. periods of mass extinction. What’s more, the cost of extracting energy from fossil fuels is expected to increase throughout the remainder of the 21st century as resources become scarce. Implicit in the expanded use of fossil fuels is the assumption that this can be done without disrupting global economic growth. To ensure worldwide economic stability, environmental sustain- ability, and human prosperity during the next few decades and beyond, drastic changes in our energy supply and infrastructure systems will be necessary. Why is solar energy better? Five sustainable sources of carbon-neutral energy are currently being discussed and investigated to meet the anticipated global need of 30-45 TW. Researchers have calculated how much energy could be produced if current existing technologies were fully implemented around the globe. EARTH: If the geothermic potential of all hot springs, geysers, and other natural heat sources were tapped for energy, less than 12 TW would be generated; a much smaller fraction is actually realistic. The Earth's usable heat is not sufficient to provide the world's energy demands. WIND: If all the surface winds on the face of the Earth could be utilized, only about 12 TW could be tapped; realistically, only 2.5 TW could be generated. BIOMASS: If sugarcane or some other high yield crop were planted on all cultivatable land across the world, only 6 TW would be produced and that would leave no land to grow food crops. Why are solar fuels better than WATER: If all the potential hydroelectric energy available from all the water flowing downhill in all the solar power? rivers, lakes, and oceans on Earth is used, only 4-5 While solar energy is clearly TW could be produced; 1.5 TW might be the way forward, it is not practically possible. perfect. Since the sun does not shine everywhere all the time, solar energy must either be stored for use later or transported from where it is available to where it is needed. Current solar energy technol- ogy, solar power, converts SUN: The sun is a giant nuclear fusion reactor at a sunlight into electricity using safe distance of about 93,000,000 miles from our photovoltaics, i.e. solar cells. planet. The energy of the sunlight that hits the Electricity storage in batteries is surface of the Earth in one hour is equal to the inefficient and expensive, and current worldwide energy demand for an entire year: electricity transmission requires 15 TW in 60 minutes. infrastructure not available in developing countries where the SUMMARY: Developing the infrastructure to harvest energy demand will be energy practically from all hydroelectric, geothermal, highest. Hence, current solar wind, and biomass sources would yield only 12-14 energy technology is difficult TW — only half of what is needed by 2050. and expensive for use on a Conversely, implementing solar energy technologies global scale. alone on a modest global scale would meet our needs through 2100 and beyond. The solar energy of the future converts sunlight into solar fuels using artificial photosynthesis. Solar fuels are liquid hydrocarbon fuels similar to petroleum that can be stored in tanks and transported in vehicles powered by the fuels themselves. What is photosynthesis? Photosynthesis is evolution’s answer to a key biological problem: how to take the energy from light and store it in chemical bonds. Plants and some microorganisms do this well, providing What is artificial nutrients for all their life processes. The photosyn- photosynthesis? thetic process converts energy from a form that is Artificial photosynthesis adapts abundant, but transient, to a form that is storable the principles of natural and metabolically useful. Without it, plants and photosynthesis to create animals could not exist. systems for solar fuels produc- tion that are simpler, more Photosynthesis uses the energy in photons to robust, and more efficient than synthesize carbohydrates, using CO2 as a source of the natural system. Like the carbon and water as a source of hydrogen and natural process, it uses a oxygen. The process requires two catalysts: one to solar-powered catalyst to split split water into its constituent atoms, and the other water and produce hydrogen. to drive the synthesis that uses CO2. Both catalysts This hydrogen can either be are powered by light from the sun. used directly to power hydro- gen fuel cells, or it can be combined with CO2 via another photocatalyst to yield conven- tional liquid hydrocarbon fuels similar to petroleum. Various catalysts capable of splitting water or synthesizing hydrocarbons exist today. However, most of them require an external electric current to function. The challenge is to discover or engineer catalysts that derive energy directly from photons. Direct solar fuels production that bypasses intermediate energy carriers, such as biomass or electricity, has the potential to be more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally benign than existing technologies. As it exists in nature, photosynthesis is very inefficient. Only a fraction of a percent of the energy in light incident on a plant’s leaves ultimately ends up in long-term storage. Much of the light is not absorbed by the right components, and much of the converted energy is used immediately for cellular metabolism and growth. Removing these limitations could yield much greater efficiencies of at least ten percent. Where are the knowledge gaps? Artificial photosynthesis is a promising technology poised to revolutionize the availability and use of carbon-neutral, geopolitically favorable fuels. However, no comprehensive, cost-effective artificial Why hasn't this photosynthetic system exists today. Currently this happened yet? Why technology remains in the research and develop- can it happen now? ment stages, relying heavily on the discovery of new Achieving SOFI goals requires a materials and catalysts. sustained, integrated, focused, and managed global and Advances in basic research have already increased cross-disciplinary, effort that has understanding of the fundamental principles that been lacking until now. SOFI will govern solar energy conversion. integrate and leverage 25-30 international labs already researching artificial photosynthe- sis, uniting them into an efficient coordinated research team dedicated to developing solar fuels and supported by sufficient long-term funding to enable the needed 10-year initiative. However, current technologies cannot
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