Ethanol is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH3CH2OH. It is an alcohol, with its formula also written as C2H5OH, C2H6O or EtOH, where Et stands for ethyl. Ethanol is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid with a characteristic wine-like odor and pungent taste. It is a psychoactive recreational drug, and the active ingredient in alcoholic drinks.
Methanol is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the chemical formula CH3OH. It is a light, volatile, colorless and flammable liquid with a distinctive alcoholic odour similar to that of ethanol . Methanol acquired the name wood alcohol because it was once produced chiefly by the destructive distillation of wood. Today, methanol is mainly produced industrially by hydrogenation of carbon monoxide.
A "photoelectrochemical cell" is one of two distinct classes of device. The first produces electrical energy similarly to a dye-sensitized photovoltaic cell, which meets the standard definition of a photovoltaic cell. The second is a photoelectrolytic cell, that is, a device which uses light incident on a photosensitizer, semiconductor, or aqueous metal immersed in an electrolytic solution to directly cause a chemical reaction, for example to produce hydrogen via the electrolysis of water.
Artificial photosynthesis is a chemical process that biomimics the natural process of photosynthesis to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen. The term artificial photosynthesis is commonly used to refer to any scheme for capturing and storing the energy from sunlight in the chemical bonds of a fuel. Photocatalytic water splitting converts water into hydrogen and oxygen and is a major research topic of artificial photosynthesis. Light-driven carbon dioxide reduction is another process studied that replicates natural carbon fixation.
Water splitting is the chemical reaction in which water is broken down into oxygen and hydrogen:
In chemistry, photocatalysis is the acceleration of a photoreaction in the presence of a photocatalyst, the excited state of which "repeatedly interacts with the reaction partners forming reaction intermediates and regenerates itself after each cycle of such interactions." In many cases, the catalyst is a solid that upon irradiation with UV- or visible light generates electron–hole pairs that generate free radicals. Photocatalysts belong to three main groups; heterogeneous, homogeneous, and plasmonic antenna-reactor catalysts. The use of each catalysts depends on the preferred application and required catalysis reaction.
Direct-ethanol fuel cells or DEFCs are a category of fuel cell in which ethanol is fed directly into the cell. They have been used as a model to investigate a range of fuel cell concepts including the use of PEM.
Hydrogen gas is produced by several industrial methods. Fossil fuels are the dominant source of hydrogen. As of 2020, the majority of hydrogen (~95%) is produced by steam reforming of natural gas and other light hydrocarbons, and partial oxidation of heavier hydrocarbons. Other methods of hydrogen production include biomass gasification and methane pyrolysis. Methane pyrolysis and water electrolysis can use any source of electricity including renewable energy.
As the world's energy demand continues to grow, the development of more efficient and sustainable technologies for generating and storing energy is becoming increasingly important. According to Dr. Wade Adams from Rice University, energy will be the most pressing problem facing humanity in the next 50 years and nanotechnology has potential to solve this issue. Nanotechnology, a relatively new field of science and engineering, has shown promise to have a significant impact on the energy industry. Nanotechnology is defined as any technology that contains particles with one dimension under 100 nanometers in length. For scale, a single virus particle is about 100 nanometers wide.
Cerium(III) oxide, also known as cerium oxide, cerium trioxide, cerium sesquioxide, cerous oxide or dicerium trioxide, is an oxide of the rare-earth metal cerium. It has chemical formula Ce2O3 and is gold-yellow in color.
Photocatalytic water splitting is a process that uses photocatalysis for the dissociation of water (H2O) into hydrogen (H
2) and oxygen (O
2). Only light energy (photons), water, and a catalyst(s) are needed, since this is what naturally occurs in natural photosynthetic oxygen production and CO2 fixation. Photocatalytic water splitting is done by dispersing photocatalyst particles in water or depositing them on a substrate, unlike Photoelectrochemical cell, which are assembled into a cell with a photoelectrode.
The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide, also known as CO2RR, is the conversion of carbon dioxide to more reduced chemical species using electrical energy. It represents one potential step in the broad scheme of carbon capture and utilization.
A solar fuel is a synthetic chemical fuel produced from solar energy. Solar fuels can be produced through photochemical, photobiological, and electrochemical reactions.
Carbon-neutral fuel is fuel which produces no net-greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint. In practice, this usually means fuels that are made using carbon dioxide (CO2) as a feedstock. Proposed carbon-neutral fuels can broadly be grouped into synthetic fuels, which are made by chemically hydrogenating carbon dioxide, and biofuels, which are produced using natural CO2-consuming processes like photosynthesis.
E-diesel is a synthetic diesel fuel created by Audi for use in automobiles. Currently, e-diesel is created by an Audi research facility in partnership with a company named Sunfire. The fuel is created from carbon dioxide, water, and electricity with a process powered by renewable energy sources to create a liquid energy carrier called blue crude which is then refined to generate e-diesel. E-diesel is considered to be a carbon-neutral fuel as it does not extract new carbon and the energy sources to drive the process are from carbon-neutral sources. As of April 2015, an Audi A8 driven by Federal Minister of Education and Research in Germany is using the e-diesel fuel.
Photogeochemistry merges photochemistry and geochemistry into the study of light-induced chemical reactions that occur or may occur among natural components of Earth's surface. The first comprehensive review on the subject was published in 2017 by the chemist and soil scientist Timothy A Doane, but the term photogeochemistry appeared a few years earlier as a keyword in studies that described the role of light-induced mineral transformations in shaping the biogeochemistry of Earth; this indeed describes the core of photogeochemical study, although other facets may be admitted into the definition.
Dioxide Materials was founded in 2009 in Champaign, Illinois, and is now headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. Its main business is to develop technology to lower the world's carbon footprint. Dioxide Materials is developing technology to convert carbon dioxide, water and renewable energy into carbon-neutral gasoline (petrol) or jet fuel. Applications include CO2 recycling, sustainable fuels production and reducing curtailment of renewable energy(i.e. renewable energy that could not be used by the grid).
Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial processes and transporting it via pipelines to where one intends to use it in industrial processes.
The Bionic Leaf is a biomimetic system that gathers solar energy via photovoltaic cells that can be stored or used in a number of different functions. Bionic leaves can be composed of both synthetic and organic materials (bacteria), or solely made of synthetic materials. The Bionic Leaf has the potential to be implemented in communities, such as urbanized areas to provide clean air as well as providing needed clean energy.
Air Company is an American engineering company, beverage maker, and producer of ethanol products based in New York City. Founded in 2017 by Gregory Constantine and Stafford Sheehan, Air Company's chief product is vodka made from carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that significantly contributes to climate change, which the process captures and converts to ethanol pure enough for human consumption.
