MIT Scientists Mimic Plants' Energy Storage System -Discovery to Unleash Solar Revolution

Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.

Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT

In a revolutionary discovery that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With yesteday's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said Nocera. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."

Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.

The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.

Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.

The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.

James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.

Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.

More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.

"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."

Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.

Posted by Casey Kazan...adapted from MIT release.

Comments

[Coyote]

Again, another galaxy post that could be informative is lost to a writer more interested in raving than informing.

Big Fat Flicking Deal: Lots and lots of “new” hydrogen producing processes out there over the decade. Just take a look at the investment market and you should be able to come up with a half dozen you can invest in.

What makes this process special? Use of a catalyst. But a very expensive one: platinum. (Is photosynthesis dependent on platinum?) And where was the proof that the use of this rare and expensive catalyst was more efficient than other systems, such as merely running an electrical current through tap water? Not a word.

Journalists that merely report without digging for background material are one thing. And journalists that act as promoters rather than reporters are another. But to fail to do background work; to promote (rave); and to fail to see the obvious questions and leave them unanswered infuriates me.

Galaxy can be so much more: Please wake up kids!

[Coyote]

Platinum has been used as a catalyst for this reaction in the past, but the costs associated with platinum (it closed today at over $1,730 per ounce) have prompted efforts to eliminate its use. The new research describes the formation of a catalyst composed of a combination of cobalt, potassium, and phosphorous—all cheap and easy to obtain. The researchers found that two different inert electrodes would, when placed into a dilute solution containing cobalt and buffered with potassium phosphate, spontaneously form a coating of the catalyst. When provided with relatively low electrical potentials, such as those obtained from a solar cell, the catalyst would liberate oxygen gas by splitting the water that was acting as a solvent.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080731-fuel-cell-improvements-raise-hopes-for-clean-cheap-energy.html

[Cliff]

I know that this is not directly related, but I was watching a vintage video last night about the aftermath (AKA Hell) of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the Atomic bombs that were unleashed on them. One thing I learned from watching that, that I did not know (or my 5th grade history book ommitted) was that after a few days the flowers there were growing like Mad because the radiation gave their growth a super-turbo boost. The plants took the energy from the radiation and used that to grow at an exponential rate.

It's all a revolving door, the plants store energy, then they are eaten (by animals or humans) or burned (i.e. corn for ethanol) and transferred back into energy. Perhaps this is why the transfer of plants to other planets we will colonize (and their maintainence and reproduction) will be so critical.

This news is not so shocking though. Most 2nd graders realizes that the sun's energy forced on an object has a result (i.e. it's so hot I can fry an eye on my car), or they know how hot the sand on the beach gets on a hot day or when they put their wet towel to dry in the sun, etc. I agree we should find more ways to store solar energy....no brainer.

[Fremon Sandlewould]

The worst thing that can happen to the world is cheap free energy!!! ... we need to live in our localism in our valleys like indigenous people. We should live like indians. We should renounce all technology. We should live like Amish.

[Jeff Cassano]

In response to "coyote's" comment - well said. What could be an informative, and intelligently amusing site is steadily going downhill. Sigh...

[Alkhemist]

In these days of constant fear-mongering by the media, I'm thrilled that there's a new innovation for something that doesn't require someone else to die so that I can use it. It's all in how you look at it, folks. Let's all take a part in making sure this one gets implemented -- don't let the oil companies squash this one!

[J P Dunn]

This is not a breakthrough, but something being done by homes and business around the world- see http://www.hopewellproject.org/pages/project.html for the first hydrogen home using solar power and fuel cells.

There are 2 key problems here, efficiency and cost.
To create hydrogen using electrolysis (and catalysts) is less than 65% efficient, and fuel cells are typically only 50% efficient, with compressors required to compress hydrogen for storage less than 80% efficient. The net overall efficiency for the full process is less than 25% vs. turnaround efficiencies of 80-90 % for bateries, otherwise used for energy storage. The cost of electrolyzers and fuel cells is even greater than the costly solar systems generating the power, and many tiems the cost of bateery storage systems in use today.

Thus, although this might seem to offer new options, Nocera's approach is neither cost effective, novel, or practical.

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