WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th July, 2020) The US government has approved $100 million funding for two new awards to advance artificial photosynthesis to produce new fuels from sunlight, the Department of Energy announced in a press release.
"Today, the US Department of Energy announced $100 million in funding over five years for two new awards focused on advancing artificial photosynthesis for the production of fuels from sunlight," the release stated on Wednesday.
The Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), led by the California Institute of Technology in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is pursuing a "co-design" initiative to make the many steps in converting sunlight to fuels work more efficiently, the Energy Department explained.
"Sunlight is the world's most basic energy source, and an ability to generate fuels directly from sunlight has the potential to revolutionize the US energy economy. This effort will keep America at the forefront of artificial photosynthesis research," Under Secretary of Energy for Science Paul Dabbar said in the release.
Researchers will combine computationally driven theory work with real-time observations using ultrafast x-rays and other advanced imaging techniques.
In the second project, the Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE), led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is seeking to develop hybrid photoelectrodes for fuel production that combine semiconductors for light absorption with molecular catalysts for conversion and fuel production, the release said.
