SOLAR FUEL PRODUCTION USING NICKEL BASED NANOPARTICLES

摘要

Anthropogenic activities are causing an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, with carbon dioxide, (CO2) being the key cause of global warming. Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) serves as one of the important strategies for mitigating the effects of global warming. However, CCS is still in the demonstration phase and it may be uneconomical for emissions from small to medium sized sources. Thus, other alternatives have been developed for converting CO2 into chemicals and fuels (1). One of such alternatives is photocatalysis which can utilize CO2 as opposed to geological storage. In photocatalysis, carbon based fuels can be produced from the conversion of CO2 and water by photocatalysts capable of simultaneously driving chemical reactions and utilizing solar energy (2). The captured CO2 from CCS plants will serve as a relatively pure and inexpensive feedstock for this conversion method and will result in products such as methane, methanol, ethanol etc that can be used as chemicals, feedstock in fuel cells or hydrogen sources for electricity.