Draft2:Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis
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The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) is a DOE Energy Innovation Hub—a research effort built on the premises that a critical mass of creative scientists and engineers working side by side can accomplish more, faster, than researchers working separately, and that a proactive approach to managing and conducting research is essential.
Led by the California Institute of Technology
(Caltech), in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and a select group of universities, JCAP will involve scientists and engineers nationwide. JCAP will keep the United States at the forefront of solar-fuel research.
Background
JCAP – which brings together many of the world’s top researchers in the field of artificial photosynthesis – is led by the California Institute of Technology in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and operates research sites at both institutions. A Southern California site is located at the Caltech campus in Pasadena, while a Northern California site operates at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley. Additional partners include SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; the University of California, Irvine; and the University of California, San Diego.
JCAP is one of several Energy Innovation Hubs established by the Department of Energy beginning in 2010. The Energy Innovation Hubs are major integrated research centers, drawing together researchers from multiple institutions and varied technical backgrounds. They are modeled after the strong scientific management approaches typified by the Manhattan Project, the Lincoln Lab at MIT, which developed radar, AT&T’s Bell Laboratories, which developed the transistor, as well as the successful DOE Bioenergy Research Centers established during the Bush Administration to pioneer advanced techniques in biotechnology, including biofuels.[1]
History
The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) was founded in 2010. It's whose primary mission is to find a cost-effective method to produce fuels using only sunlight, water, and carbon-dioxide. The program had an initial budget of $122M over five years, subject to Congressional appropriation.[2][3][4][5] The original Director of JCAP was Professor Harry Atwater of Caltech.
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Partners
Its two main centers are located
In addition, JCAP has partners from
- Stanford University
- University of California at Berkeley
- University of California at Santa Barbara
- University of California at Irvine
- University of California at San Diego
- Stanford Linear Accelerator
JCAP also serves as a hub for other solar fuels research teams across the United States, including 20 DOE Energy Frontier Research Center.
Summary of accomplishments and capabilities
To date, the Hub has filed over 40 Invention Disclosures and over 30 provisional patent applications.[9] JCAP has established an Industrial Partnership Program. Panasonic Corporation is JCAP’s first Industrial Member. As JCAP Industrial Members, Corporations can pursue joint work with the Hub and also have an opportunity to engage with other members of the partnership.
Research highlights
- Reduction of co2 and co using bifunctional alloys
- Co2 electrochemical reduction catalyzed by bimetallic materials at low overpotential
- Recent advances in understanding of hot carrier dynamics in chemical systems and solids for energy conversion and catalysis applications
- Efficient solar-driven hydrogen-generating device featuring protected photoelectrochemical assembly with earth-abundant catalysts photoanode development through combinatorial integration of mixed-metal oxide catalysts on bismuth vanadate
- Photoanode development through combinatorial integration of mixed-metal oxide catalysts on bismuth vanadate
- Assembly and photocarrier dynamics of heterostructured nanocomposite photoanodes from multicomponent colloidal nanocrystals
- How can theory help with rapid screening of promising photocatalysts in solvent?
- Detailed investigation of the role of surface motifs on the behavior of p-wse2photocathodes
- An electrochemical reduction of co2 exclusively to methanol
- Band gap tunability in sb-alloyed bivo4 quaternary oxides as visible-light absorbers for solar fuel applications
- JCAP researchers integrate theory and experiment to discover novel photoanodes and pave the way for materials-by-design techniques
- A high-performance si microwire photocathode coupled with ni–mo catalyst
- Interface engineering for stable, high-performance photoanodes
- P-type transparent conducting oxide/n-type semiconductor heterojunctions for efficient and stable solar water oxidation
- Direct observation of a semiconductor/liquid junction by operando x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (xps)
- Fabrication of high efficiency perovskite solar cells
- Transparent catalytic nickel oxide protecting films for photoanodes
- High-throughput synchrotron x-ray experimentation for combinatorial phase matching
- Origin of high oer activity in ni/fe oxyhydroxides
- Hot-carrier generation from plasmon decay in energy conversion
- Stabilized si microwire arrays for solar-driven h2o oxidation
- Computational and experimental identification of an earth-abundant light absorber for solar water splitting
- Unique nanostructure revealed in new oer electrocatalyst
- Selective reduction of co2 to methane
Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub
On July 22, 2010, the Department of Energy announced the selection of JCAP, a team led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), to run the Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub.
Background
After nearly 3 billion years of evolution, nature can effectively convert sunlight into energy-rich chemical fuels using the abundant feedstocks of water and carbon dioxide. All fuels used today to power vehicles and create electricity, whether from fossil or biomass resources, are ultimately derived from photosynthesis. While biofuels are renewable resources that avoid the environmental consequences of burning the sequestered carbon of fossil fuels, their scalability and sustainability remain a concern. Furthermore, the overall energy efficiency of converting sunlight to plant material and then converting biomass into fuels is low.
The natural photosynthetic apparatus is a remarkable machine, but plants and photosynthetic microbes were not designed to meet human energy needs - much of the energy captured from the sun is necessarily devoted to the life processes of the plants. Imagine the potential energy benefits if we could generate fuels directly from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water in a manner analogous to the natural system, but without the need to maintain life processes. The impact of replacing fossil fuels with fuels generated directly by sunlight would be immediate and revolutionary. Recognizing this, the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) report, New Science for a Secure and Sustainable Energy Future, lists the production of fuels directly from sunlight as one its three strategic goals for which transformational science breakthroughs are urgently needed.
Basic research has already provided enormous advances in our understanding of the subtle and complex photochemistry associated with the natural photosynthetic system. Similar advances have occurred using inorganic photo-catalytic methods to split water or reduce carbon dioxide. Yet, we still lack sufficient knowledge to design solar fuel generation systems with the required efficiency and sustainability for economic viability. The Fuels from Sunlight Hub will develop an effective solar energy to chemical fuel conversion system. The system should operate at an overall efficiency and produce fuel of sufficient energy content to enable transition from bench-top discovery to proof-of-concept prototyping. The magnitude of this challenge is daunting, but not insurmountable, and will require that the successful Hub draw expertise and premier scientific talent from the disciplines of chemistry, physics, materials sciences, biology, and engineering.
Critical issues
Critical issues for the Fuels from Sunlight Hub include the following:
- Understanding and designing catalytic complexes or solids that generate chemical fuel from carbon dioxide and/or water. This research would necessarily be coordinated with complementary efforts to comprehend and design other essential elements required for the overall conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels. These include solar photon capture, energy transfer, charge separation and electron transport. A fundamental concern is the design and discovery of materials that will be cost effective and sustainable in the future economy.
- Integration of all essential elements from light capture to fuel formation into an effective solar fuel generation system. This would require research and methodology that seek to understand complex issues of the system as an operating unit. Unlike natural photosynthesis, successful systems within the scope of this FOA should function efficiently at full solar flux; hence, the efficacy of system components should be evaluated in consideration of such a demanding environment.
- Pragmatic evaluation of the solar fuel system under development. While a robust solar fuels industry does not presently exist for deployment of resulting technologies, the Hub should have the capacity to determine the practicality of a solar fuel system as a prototype and as a potential product in the marketplace.
More detailed information regarding research needs for the production of fuels from sunlight can be found in two of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Basic Research Needs workshop reports: Basic Research Needs for Solar Energy Utilization and Basic Research Needs: Catalysis for Energy. In addition, the conversion of sunlight into chemical fuels requires significant progress in meeting the scientific grand challenges described in the BESAC report, Directing Matter and Energy: Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination. All of these reports can be found at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/list.html.
More than references, these reports are the end product of a process that defined the scope of the Fuels from Sunlight Hub. Through these Basic Research Needs workshops, BES solicited extensive input from the scientific and technical community, including professionals from universities, national laboratories, industry, and non-profits, on the specific barriers to radical progress towards artificial photosynthesis. A description of this process and the broad nature of the input collected is also available at http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/files/BRN_workshops.pdf.
Contact
Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis
Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory
1 Cyclotron Road, Mail Stop 30R0205
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone: (510) 495-8703
For collaboration opportunities: collaborate@solarfuelshub.org
For general inquiries: info@solarfuelshub.org
Related
External links
- http://solarfuelshub.org/
- DOE website about JCAP
- https://www.mgi.gov/content/joint-center-artificial-photosynthesis-jcap
- Brief technical summary of JCAP's R&D approach
References
- ↑ Energy Department to Provide $75 Million for ‘Fuels from Sunlight’ Hub
- ↑ "New York Times article about artificial photosynthesis". https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/business/22novel.html/.
- ↑ "India Times article about artificial photosynthesis". http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-04-01/news/31266999_1_richard-cogdell-solar-cells-sunlight/.
- ↑ "EE Times article about JCAP". http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4204847/DoE-grant-artificial-photosynthesis/.
- ↑ "CBS SF article about opening of JCAP North". http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/06/03/ceremony-held-for-new-berkeley-solar-fuels-facility/.
- ↑ "Caltech news article about Obama's 2011 State of the Union address". http://features.caltech.edu/features/108/.
- ↑ "Berkeley news article about Obama's 2011 State of the Union address". Archived from the original on 2012-12-10. https://archive.today/20121210190844/http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/publications/news/2011/yang_DOE_get_nod_from_president_obama.php/.
- ↑ "Scientific American Article about Obama's 2011 State of the Union". http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/01/26/obamas-state-of-the-union-the-facts-about-clean-energy-and-broadband-access/.
- ↑ http://solarfuelshub.org/technology-transfer