Technology


LEDs and a photonics device are at the heart of a process to fight climate change


A European consortium is developing a new process that uses sunlight and LEDs to turn carbon dioxide and green hydrogen into clean energy products like methane gas and methanol liquid fuel. Called “SPOTLIGHT”, the consortium is


creating a chemical process and a photonics device to convert carbon dioxide and green hydrogen into the chemical fuel methane and carbon monoxide as starting materials for creating methanol liquid fuel. Te new device should process up to one megaton of carbon dioxide per year, to complement existing large-scale carbon capture and utilisation processes. While liquid methanol is used to make safe,


clean energy for cars, wind turbines and energy storage applications, it is usually created by processing natural gas with steam, and then converting and distilling the resulting mixture into pure methanol. “Our goal is to develop and validate a


photonic device and chemical process concept


for the sunlight-powered conversion of CO2 and green H2


into the chemical fuel methane


(CH4, Sabatier process) and carbon monoxide (CO), or reverse water gas shiſt (rWGS) process,


A photonics device and LEDs will fight climate change


as starting material for the production of the chemical fuel methanol (CH3


CH4 and CH3


i.e., capable of absorbing the entire solar spectrum. Te chemical processes proposed by


SPOTLIGHT can be scaled up to offset the CO2 emitted by small to medium ‘point sources’,


places that emit carbon dioxide with emissions lower than one megaton per year. “Worldwide, there are approximately 11,000


OH). Both OH are compatible with our


current infrastructure and suited for multiple applications such as car fuel, energy storage and the starting material to produce valuable chemicals,” said Nicole Meulendijks, the project coordinator at SPOTLIGHT. SPOTLIGHT’s photonic device will


comprise a transparent flow reactor, optimised for light incoupling in the catalyst bed. It will also include secondary solar optics to concentrate natural sunlight to project onto the reactor, and an energy-efficient LED light source to ensure continuous operation. SPOTLIGHT’s catalysts will be plasmonic,


carbon dioxide point sources with emissions lower than 1Mt/year. When combined, all these point sources emit a cumulative annual total of around 2.7 billion tonnes of CO2 approximately 16% of all CO2 from point


–


sources globally every year. So, potentially, the process we envision at SPOTLIGHT could convert 2.7 billion tonnes of CO2


process that SPOTLIGHT will develop are modular and can be tailored to the size of CO2


per year into


useful chemical fuels,” said Meulendijks. Te photonic device and sunlight-powered


sources up to 1Mt annually, equal to land


coverage of five football fields. Addressing all current carbon dioxide point sources up to that size with SPOTLIGHT’s Sabatier process, a total of 2,700Mt of CO2


per annum could be


converted to 982 megatonnes of chemical fuel methane – that’s 49.1EJ annually.


A flexible supercapacitor might power future wearables


Research from the University of Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) and the Federal University of Pelotas (ufpel), Brazil, has shown how a supercapacitor can be efficiently manufactured to be a high- performance and low-cost power-storage device that can easily be integrated into footwear, clothing and accessories, to extend wearable devices’ operating life. “While supercapacitors can certainly


boost the lifespan of wearable technologies, they have the potential to be revolutionary when you consider their potential role in autonomous vehicles and AI-assisted smart sensors that could help conserve energy. Tis is why it’s important that we create a low-cost and environmentally-friendly way to produce this incredibly promising storage technology,”


said Professor Ravi Silva, Director of the ATI and Head of the Nano-Electronics Centre at the University of Surrey. Te research team’s idea uses


carbon nanomaterials to create flexible supercapacitors, which the team claims will be a cheaper and less time-consuming process. Te fabrication method involves transferring aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays from a silicon wafer to a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. Tis is then coated with a material called polyaniline (PANI), which stores energy through a mechanism known as “pseudocapacitance”, offering outstanding energy storage properties with robust mechanical integrity. A supercapacitor stores and releases energy like a typical battery, but with far quicker


Flexible supercapacitors willl be cheaper for wearables


recharge and discharge times. Te team’s enhanced, wafer-thin supercapacitor retains most of its capacitance aſter numerous cycles at different bending conditions, demonstrating its robustness, longevity and efficiency. “Te future is certainly bright for supercapacitors,” said Professor Silva.


www.electronicsworld.co.uk March 2022 05


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46