Solar Fuels and Artificial Photosynthesis: Science and innovation to change our future energy options

The RSC report Solar Fuels and Artificial Photosynthesis: Science and innovation to change our future energy options is aimed at UK policy-makers with an interest in sustainable energy and in energy research and innovation. We also hope that the report and accompanying infographics will be of interest to the wider public.  

Revolutionising our energy options

Scientists around the world are working towards the goal of developing technologies to harness energy from the sun to produce fuels for transport, industry and electricity generation. Fuels produced using solar energy would transform our future energy options by providing an alternative to fossil fuels.

In his foreword for the report, Nobel Laureate Professor Alan Heeger writes that although the idea that we could produce electricity using solar energy may at one time have been considered to be a remote vision, today solar photovoltaic panels are an increasingly common sight.

The RSC report introduces another long-term goal for science and technology in the quest to harness solar energy: producing fuels using sunlight. The idea is to capture and deliberately store solar energy in the chemical bonds of a fuel. If this can be achieved on a large scale it would revolutionise our future energy options by providing a way to:

• store solar energy for use when and where it is needed
• produce sustainable fuels for transport
• produce sustainable raw materials (feedstocks) for production of goods such as fertiliser, pharmaceuticals and plastics.          

Solar fuels could also play an important role in enabling or enhancing other sustainable energy technologies.

While the potential of producing fuels from sunlight is tremendous there are significant challenges which need to be overcome in making a transition from current laboratory prototypes to commercial systems possible.  

Three routes to solar fuel production - natural photosynthesis, artificial photosynthesis and thermochemical approaches - are currently being explored.  'Artificial photosynthesis' is a term that has emerged to describe processes that, like natural photosynthesis, harvest sunlight and use this energy to chemically convert water and carbon dioxide into fuels.

Research and innovation globally

The report also gives an overview of the international research effort which is gaining momentum in a focussed drive to produce fuels using sunlight.  Notable among this effort are the Joint Centre for Artificial Photosynthesis, one of three Energy Innovation Hubs in the United States, the Towards Biosolar Cells consortium in The Netherlands and the Korean Centre for Artificial Photosynthesis.  There is also some indication of entrepreneurial initiatives and of initial industrial interest in the energy, automotive, catalysis and sustainable construction sectors.  

The capacity to produce renewable solar hydrogen would be important in enabling hydrogen transport. The capability to use solar energy to produce useful fuels from carbon dioxide and, for example, water would enhance carbon capture technologies by providing a way to use rather than simply to store captured carbon dioxide.