Solar Optofluidics (SOLO): Water Splitting beyond the 1.23 eV Thermodynamic Constraints

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Photovoltaics)
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Hydrogen, Hydrogen production)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr J Xuan
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Heriot-Watt University

Standard

EPSRC

01 January 2018

31 May 2018

5 months

£101,118

Info. & commun. Technol.

Scotland

NC : Engineering

Dr J Xuan, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University

Project Contact, Xyratex Technology Limited
Project Contact, Scottish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (SHFCA)
Project Contact, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST)

Renewable hydrogen will play an important role in the UK's energy future for low carbon transport, heating, grid-scale energy storage and CO2 capture/utilisation. The UK's hydrogen demand would reach 143~860 TWh/year by 2050, while the current production capacity is only 27 TWh/year. Conversion of abundant sunlight to produce H2 is one of attractive approach to meet the demand. Among various solar H2 technology, photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has gained much attention due to its operational flexibility, reduced electron-hole recombination and natural separation of H2 and O2 in two electrodes.Learning from the historic trajectory of solar PV commercialisation, the key to deliver market acceptable PEC hydrogen production will be (1) enabling the use of much cheaper materials (such as silicon) and (2) significantly increasing the STF efficiency to at least 20%.SOLO aims to remove the 1.23 eV thermodynamic restraints from the PEC water splitting system, by developing a pH-differential strategy to alter the individual equilibrium potentials of anodic (OER) and cathodic (HER) half reactions, thus reducing the energy barrier. A novel membraneless optofluidic platform is proposed to accommodate the pH-differential design, where acid and alkaline electrolyte will be able to co-exist in a single cell. Promising low bandgap materials will be demonstrated in the SOLO platform to achieve cost effectiveness and high STF efficiency.

15/02/19