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SUMMARY:Process Engineering seminar: Solar to Chemical Energy Conversion\,
  Professor Joel Ager - Professor Joel Ager\, Lawrence Berkeley National La
 boratory &amp\; UC Berkeley
DTSTART:20211129T160000Z
DTEND:20211129T170000Z
UID:TALK166507@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:75628
DESCRIPTION:Join the seminar on "Microsoft Teams":https://teams.microsoft.
 com/l/meetup-join/19:b7df45856d814c06bdec7db948bbaa39@thread.tacv2/1637573
 578515?context=%7B%22Tid%22:%2249a50445-bdfa-4b79-ade3-547b4f3986e9%22\,%2
 2Oid%22:%22026c67ed-9f3a-40b8-9234-48eb6576dfe8%22%7D\n\n\nIf renewable po
 wer sources such as solar and wind could be used to produce chemical precu
 rsors and/or fuels\, it would provide an alternative to mankind’s curren
 tly unsustainable\nuse of fossil fuels and slow the rate of CO2 emission i
 nto the atmosphere [1\,2]. Solar to chemical energy conversion by electroc
 hemical and photoelectrochemical processes is a\npotentially promising app
 roach to address this fundamental and important challenge.\n\nAnalogous to
  photovoltaics\, driving the thermodynamically uphill redox reactions requ
 ired for\nnet solar to chemical energy conversion necessitates directional
  charge transport [3]. Additionally\, in order to convert carbon dioxide t
 o hydrocarbons\, analogous to photosynthesis\, one must manage multi-elect
 ron transfer reactions (e.g. 12 in the case of ethylene and ethanol)\,\nan
 d potential losses in all parts of the system including the cathode\, anod
 e\, electrolyte\, and membrane must be minimized. It will be shown that op
 timized coupling of photovoltaics to\nelectrolysis cells can be used to co
 nvert CO2 to C-C coupled products such as ethylene and ethanol with an ove
 rall energy conversion efficiency of over 5% [4]. While these and related\
 napproaches are promising\, product separation and operational stability r
 emain as challenges.\n\nThere has been impressive progress in laboratory-s
 cale CO2 electrolysis [5]. While the current economics of direct competiti
 on with existing\, petroleum-based production methods\nmay be unfavorable\
 , integration of CO2 conversion into existing petrochemical plants is an a
 ttractive alternative. On-site CO2 recycling (CCSR) in ethylene oxide prod
 uction has a projected economic payback time as short as 1-2 years\, depen
 ding the availability of low-cost electricity and the applicable carbon ta
 xes [6]. The CCSR approach is applicable to other largescale chemical prod
 uction processes including ammonia production. Wide-scale adoption of CCSR
  in chemical manufacturing has the potential to recycle between 4-10 Gta C
 O2 annually by 2050\, representing ca. 50% of this industry’s carbon neu
 trality goal [7].\n\nReferences:\n\n1. Graves\,C.\; Ebbesen\, S. D.\; Moge
 nsen\, M.\; Lackner\, K. S. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2011\,15\, 1–23.
 \n\n2. Chu\, S.\; Cui\, Y.\; Liu\, N. The Path towards Sustainable Energy.
  Nat. Mater. 2016\, 16\, 16–22.\n\n3. Osterloh\, F. E. ACS Energy Lett. 
 2017\, 2\, 445–453.\n\n4. Gurudayal\; Bullock\, J.\; Srankó\, D. F.\; T
 owle\, C. M.\; Lum\, Y.\; Hettick\, M.\; Scott\, M. C.\; Javey\, A.\; Ager
 \, J.\nW. Energy Environ. Sci. 2017\, 10\, 2222–2230.\n\n5. Ager\, J. W.
 \; Lapkin\, A. A. Science 2018\, 360\, 707–708.\n\n6. Barecka\, M. H.\; 
 Ager\, J. W.\; Lapkin\, A. A. Energy Environ. Sci. 2021\, 14\, 1530–1543
 .\n\n7. Barecka\, M. H.\; Ager\, J. W.\; Lapkin\, A. A. iScience 2021\, 10
 2514\n\n*Speaker bio*\n\nJoel W. Ager III is a Senior Staff Scientist in t
 he Materials Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory an
 d an Adjunct Full Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Depar
 tment\, UC Berkeley. He is a Principal Investigator in the Electronic Mate
 rials Program and in the Liquid Sunshine Alliance (LiSA) at LBNL and in th
 e Berkeley Educational Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS). He grad
 uated from Harvard College in 1982 with an A.B in Chemistry and from the U
 niversity of Colorado in 1986 with a PhD in Chemical Physics. After a post
 -doctoral fellowship at the University of Heidelberg\, he joined Lawrence 
 Berkeley National Laboratory in 1989. His research interests include the d
 iscovery of new photoelectrochemical and electrochemical catalysts for sol
 ar to chemical energy conversion\, fundamental electronic and transport pr
 operties of semiconducting materials\, and the development of new types of
  transparent conductors. Professor Ager is a frequent invited speaker at i
 nternational conferences and has published over 300 papers in refereed jou
 rnals. His work is highly cited\, with over 38\,000 citations and an h-ind
 ex of 102 (Google Scholar).
LOCATION:Microsoft Teams 
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