According to Science and Technology Daily, recently the EU “A-LEAF” project team published an innovation in the journal “Energy and Environmental Science”. They developed an “artificial leaf” system that can mimic the photosynthesis process in nature, converting carbon dioxide and water into renewable fuel. The system achieves a record solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency of 10%. This is an order of magnitude higher than the conversion efficiency of natural leaves, providing a sustainable solution to the energy transition.
According to the research team, the A-LEAF project aims to develop an artificial photosynthesis device (artificial leaf). The direct conversion of carbon dioxide, water and sunlight into valuable fuels and chemicals using “artificial leaves” is one of the biggest challenges in the energy transition. Previously developed “artificial leaves” need expensive raw materials, and there are problems such as system stability and poor performance.
The new device has achieved for the first time the simultaneous production of hydrogen and storage of hydrogen formate, which can release hydrogen in the absence of sunlight. Thus, for the first time, the latest device has achieved continuous hydrogen production using an “artificial leaf” device. The team used a compact electrochemical flow cell and integrated it with a low-cost silicon-based photovoltaic module to validate the system.
The team says this research paves the way for the integration of “artificial leaf” systems in future energy scenarios and provides a sustainable solution to the major challenge of transforming the current centralized energy model into a distributed alternative energy source.
The researchers plan to scale up the system to demonstrate its industrial feasibility, with the ultimate goal of building an “artificial tree.
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