Open Access
Issue
Natl Sci Open
Volume 2, Number 6, 2023
Article Number 20230033
Number of page(s) 12
Section Materials Science
DOI https://doi.org/10.1360/nso/20230033
Published online 22 August 2023

© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Science Press and EDP Sciences

Licence Creative CommonsThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

INTRODUCTION

Artificial photosynthesis can convert CO2 and H2O into useful fuels, chemicals (CO [1], CH4 [2], etc.) and O2 under solar irradiation, which is the most important way for carbon neutralization [39]. The application of large-scale artificial photosynthesis is of great significance to weaken the global warming, overcome the current energy and environmental crisis [1012]. More recently, several large-sized artificial photosynthetic systems for CO2 utilization have been reported, e.g., the solar fuel production chain with square meters (m2) scale [13], the photovoltaic electrocatalytic device with ~0.1 m2 scale [14]. To the best of our knowledge, the highest solar to chemical energy efficiency (STC) of large-sized devices is 7.2% by the photovoltaic electrocatalytic system [14]. However, the material cost for constructing large-sized artificial photosynthetic system is too expensive to practical application, due to the using of noble metal catalysts (e.g., Ir, Pt, Rh, Ru) and the costliness of large-sized components (e.g., membranes, solar reactor) in the devices [15,16]. Therefore, it is one of the holy grails of the entire scientific and technological community to achieve a scalable artificial photosynthetic system with high STC and low cost simultaneously, so as to realize the sustainable development of human society.

Herein, we have developed a new artificial photosynthetic system by integrating a photovoltaic electrolytic H2O decomposition part and a solar heating CO2 hydrogenation part. Just relying on such a simple strategy, this system not only changed the reaction path and mass transportation but also discarded all rare elements and expensive components, resulting in the m2 level scalable production and a record STC (19.4%) with low cost. Moreover, an outdoor demonstration (1.268 m2 scale) of this new design was built based on full commercial components and the STC was still higher than 15% at outdoor test in winter. This artificial photosynthetic system could recover the total system cost within 833 days of operation by selling the products of CO.

METHOD SECTION

Thermocatalytic CO2 hydrogenation

The thermocatalytic activity of catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation was tested by the fixed-bed reactor (XM190708-007, Dalian Zhongjiaruilin Liquid Technology Co., Ltd.) in continuous flow form. Typically, 10 mg of catalyst was placed in a quartz flow reactor. For CO production, the feed gas of CO2/H2/Ar = 1:1:48 or CO2/99% H2+1% O2/Ar = 1:1:48 with 100 sccm of flow rate was regulated by the mass flow controller. The reaction products were tested by gas chromatograph (GC) 7890A equipped with FID and TCD detectors.

Solar heating CO2 hydrogenation as CO

The solar heating CO2 hydrogenation was tested as follows. 137 g of Fe SACs were loaded intoTiC/Cu based device (0.024 m2), and irradiated by a xenon lamp (ZSL-4000). In this test, CO2 and 100% H2 (or 99% H2+1% O2) were mixed as feed gas. For the produced gas, the flow rate was tested by mass flowmeter and the composition was tested by GC 7890A equipped with FID and TCD detectors. The data were collected by FID and TCD.

The CO rate (δ, mol m−2 h−1) was calculated as follows:

δ ( m o l   m 2  h 1 ) = L / ( 24.5 × S ) (1)

where L is the CO flow rate (L h−1), S is the irradiated area (0.024 m−2). When using the 99% H2+1% O2 as feed gases, the L irradiated by 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun was 0.98, 5.32, and 12.43 L h−1, respectively.

Solar driven water splitting

The back contact silicon cells interdigitated with 2800 cm2 irradiation area were purchased from SUNPOWER (23.5% efficiency) to drive an alkaline electrolyzer with 1 m2 of Ni/Stainless steel mesh. Xenon lamp (HP-2-4000) was used as a light source and 1 mol L−1 KOH was used as the electrolyte for sunlight driven water splitting. The produced H2 was injected into the TiC/Cu based device and the produced H2 rate of the solar driven water splitting system was tested by mass flowmeter (C50 300SCCM).

The H2 production rate for per m2 (H, mol m−2 h−1) of solar cell was calculated as follows:

H ( mol m 2  h 1 ) = ε / ( 24.5 × S ) (2)

where ε (L h−1) is the H2 generation amount per hour detected by a flowmeter, S is the irradiated area (0.2800 m−2). The ε irradiated by 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun was 6.68, 10.02, 13.31, and 16.45 L h−1, respectively.

Enthalpy change energy of chemicals

The enthalpy change energy of CO2(g), CO(g), H2(g), O2(g), H2O(g), and H2O(l) was −393.505, −110.541, 0, 0, −241.818, and −285.830 kJ mol−1, respectively.

The (g) and (l) indicated the gas state and liquid state, respectively.

Novel artificial photosynthesis for CO2 and H2O converted as CO and O2

As the solar driven water splitting produced H2 injected into the TiC/Cu based device loaded with 137 g of Fe SACs, CO2 was simultaneously put into the TiC/Cu based device, which was controlled by mass flow controller (C50 5SLM). The TiC/Cu based device was irradiated by a xenon lamp (ZSL-4000). For the produced gas, the flow rate was tested by mass flowmeter (C50 5SLM) and the composition was tested by GC 7890A equipped with FID and TCD detectors.

The CO rate (δ, mmol h−1) was calculated as follows:

δ ( mmol h 1 ) = ( 1000 × L / 24.5 ) (3)

where L was the CO flow rate (L h−1) and the L irradiated by 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun was 0.946, 5.170, and 12.030 L h−1, respectively.

The STC calculation of sunlight driven CO2 conversion as CO

The STC efficiency of novel artificial photosynthetic system for converting CO2 into CO was calculated as follows:

STC = ( H × ε ) / ( I × S T × 3600 ) (4)

where ΔH was the reaction enthalpy change energy (H2O(l) + CO2(g) → CO(g) + 1/2O2(g) + H2O(g), ΔH = 326.9754 kJ mol−1), ε (mol) was the CO generation amount per hour detected by a flowmeter, I was the light intensity (kW m−2), ST was the total irradiated area. The ε irradiated by 0.6, 0.8, 1 sun was 0.0386, 0.211, 0.491 mol, respectively.

Since not all H2 produced from solar driven water splitting was used for CO2 hydrogenation, the irradiation area (β) of solar driven water splitting used for CO2 hydrogenation was calculated as follows:

β = M / N × 0.2800  m 2 (5)

The M was H2 used for CO2 hydrogenation as CO, which was equal to the CO production rates of 0.0386, 0.211, and 0.491 mol h−1, under 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun irradiation, respectively. The N was the H2 production rate of 0.3931, 0.5273, and 0.6714 mol h−1, irradiated by 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun, respectively. Therefore, the β was 0.0276, 0.1119, and 0.2047 m−2, under 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun irradiation, respectively. And the

S T = β + 0.0240  m 2 (6)

Therefore, the ST was 0.0516, 0.1359, and 0.2287 m−2, under 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun irradiation, respectively.

Consequently, the STC was 11.3%, 17.6%, and 19.4%, under 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun irradiation, respectively.

The EC calculation

The 1 sun driven EC of photovoltaic electrocatalytic water splitting in this work and reported photovoltaic electrocatalytic CO2 reduction was calculated as follows:

EC = STCE / efficiency (7)

The STCE was the solar to hydrogen chemical efficiency (19.04%) under 1 sun irradiation. The efficiency was the electric energy generation efficiency of solar cell (23.5%) under 1 sun irradiation. Therefore, the EC was calculated as 81.0%.

Outdoor artificial photosynthetic system

The outdoor artificial photosynthetic system consisted of two components. One component was photovoltaic electrolysis system, in which the PERC solar cell (182DCB) with 1.07 m2 of solar irradiation area was used to power electrolytic reactor with 2.782 m2 of Ni/Stainless steel mesh divided into 12 independent chambers in series. The mixture of 200 g KOH and 1.8 L deionized water was used as the electrolyte. The other component was solar heating system, in which a solar heating device was provided by Hebei scientist research experimental and equipment trade Co., Ltd. with the size of 4 cm in diameter and 50 cm inlength, eqquipped with a reflector of 50 cm inlength and 36 cm in width. For the production of CO, the catalysts used in solar heater were 400 g CuOx/ZnO/Al2O3. For CO production production in solar heating system, the CO2/H2 ratio was > 1.5. It was required to control the flow rate to ensure the H2 consumption. The data were collected by FID and TCD.

The STC of outdoor artificial photosynthetic system

The STC of the outdoor artificial photosynthetic system for converting CO2 into CO was calculated as follows:

STC = ( H × ε ) / ( I × S T × 3600 × 22.4 ) (8)

where ΔH is the reaction enthalpy change energy (H2O(l) + CO2(g) → CO(g) + 1/2O2(g) + H2O(g), ΔH = 326.9754 kJ mol−1), ε (L) was the CO generation amount per hour detected by a flowmeter, I was the outdoor solar intensity (kW m−2), ST was the total irradiated area of 1.268 m2.

The cost recovery calculation

We assumed that the CO production amount of the outdoor artificial photosynthetic system was 258.4 L day−1. Due to the variety of CO prices, the quotation of Chae et al. [17] reported result and North Special Gas Co., Ltd. was adopted, which was $6 per m3 CO.

Therefore, the income of outdoor artificial photosynthetic system for CO production was 0.2584 × $6 = $1.55. To achieve an income of $1291, this system required $1291/$1.55 = 833 sunny days, which were equivalent to the sunny days in 3.5 years, according to the weather in Baoding of 240 sunny days per year.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Conception for constructing novel artificial photosynthetic system

It is well known that the widely studied photovoltaic electrocatalytic systems contain the competition of two main reactions: H2O decomposition and CO2 hydrogenation on one system with CO2 transportation through liquid electrolytes. Although various efficient catalysts have been developed, such as metals [1820], metal compounds [2123], molecular complexes [24,25], photovoltaic electrocatalysis still faces two intrinsic shortcomings: one is the complex reaction process in single catalytic site and the other is the sluggish CO2 supply through gas/liquid transportation [2628]. Here, a new paradigm of artificial photosynthesis is proposed to separate the two reactions of water splitting (2H2O → 2H2 + O2) [29] and CO2 hydrogenation (CO2 + H2 → CO + H2O) [3032] in space and time. There are four major advantages in this new system: (1) mature technologies can be selected for both water splitting and CO2 hydrogenation; (2) the integrated system can be easy amplified; (3) the systems for the two reactions can be optimized separately, providing a variety of possibilities for efficiency, cost and products; (4) CO2 supply can be boosted by avoiding the gas transport in liquid elelctrolytes. As shown in Figure 1, this is an integrated system in which the hydrogen generated from photovoltaic water electrolysis [33] is directly injected into the solar heating system for CO2 hydrogenation [3436]. The CO2 transportation of this system is in gas diffusion mode at a rate of 10−5 m2 s−1 [37], 10,000 times higher than the rate of CO2 diffused through liquid electrolytes (10−9 m2 s−1) [38] in conventional photovoltaic electrocatalytic systems [39,40], which could meet the CO2 supply for large-sized artificial photosynthetic systems. For integrating such a new artificial photosynthetic system, the two issues should be solved firstly. One is the matching problem of solar energy utilization in this system, that is, how to scientifically distribute the proportion of solar energy irradiated to the two devices to improve the STC; the second is the quality matching of hydrogen production and hydrogen consumption in the new system.

thumbnail Figure 1

Schematic map of the novel artificial photosynthesis.

Integrating the artificial photosynthetic system

A TiC/Cu heterostructure photothermal material was choose to construct the solar heating catalytic system [4143], which could heat the catalysts to 318°C under 1 kW m−2 intensity of sunlight (1 sun) irradiation to run CO2 hydrogenation (Figure S1). This is the key for realizing the new artificial photosynthetic system, because the low solar irradiated temperature of conventional photothermal system (~80°C, Figure S2) can not drive photothermal CO2 hydrogenation under ambient solar irradiation. As the Fe single-atom catalysts (Fe SACs, Figures S3–S7) were used as catalysts for solar heating CO2 hydrogenation, the system showed a CO generation rate of 21.14 mol m−2 h−1 under 1 sun irradiation, corresponding to 24.1% of solar to chemical energy efficiency (detailed calculation seen in Supplementary Methods, Figure S8). More interestingly, as the 1% O2-polluted H2 was used as feed gas, the efficiency of CO2 hydrogenation had little change (Figure S8A), evidencing the robustness of solar heating catalytic system.

The low requirement of hydrogen purity for solar heating catalysis enables us to simplify the photovoltaic electrocatalysis. Besides using commercialized single crystalline silicon solar cells (23.5% efficiency) as electric energy supply, the membrane was eliminated from the electrocatalytic reactor (Figure 1) and the cheap nickel-plated stainless-steel mesh (Ni/stainless steel, Figure S9) was used as the electrodes to replace the precious electrocatalysts [1820]. In the membrane free electrocatalytic reactor, the Ni/stainless steel’s electrodes could achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 1 mol L−1 KOH electrolyte at only 1.53 V (Figure S10). The H2 production rate of this photovoltaic electrolytic system was 2.40 mol m−2 h−1 under 1 sun irradiation (Figure S11), equivalent to 19.04% solar to hydrogen chemical efficiency (detailed calculation seen in Supplementary Methods). It was calculated that the solar cell’s electric energy to chemicals energy efficiency (EC) of this photovoltaic electrocatalytic water splitting system was 81% (detailed calculation see METHOD SECTION). The released H2 contained ~0.8% O2, which also meets the purity requirement of solar heating CO2 hydrogenation.

Based on the above experimental results, the photovoltaic electrolytic water splitting device with 2800 cm2 of solar irradiation area and solar heating CO2 hydrogenation device with 240 cm2 of solar irradiation area were integrated as a new type of artificial photosynthetic system with more than 3000 cm2 of solar irradiation area in the laboratory (Figure 1).

The performance of novel artificial photosynthesis

Figure 2A shows that the laboratory system could produce CO with a rate of 38, 210, and 491 mmol h−1 under 0.6, 0.8, and 1 sun irradiation, respectively. Additionally, Figure 2B identifies that this system showed a 100% selectivity for CO2 converted into CO under different intensities of solar irradiation due to the +3 oxidation state of Fe-SACs (Figure S12) [44]. Figure 2C illustrates that the STC of new artificial photosynthetic system was increased from 11.3%, 17.4% to 19.4% along with the 0.6, 0.8 to 1 sun irradiation (detailed calculation see in METHOD SECTION), which was 2.7 times higher than the best record value of scalable artificial photosynthesis with ~1000 cm2 of solar irradiation area (7.2%) [14]. The CO2 reduction performance of this system was continuously tested for 6 days. The CO production rate was stable maintained at ~500 mmol h−1 (Figure 2D) and the Fe SACs kept single atom state (Figure S13), indicating the excellent stability of new artificial photosynthetic system.

thumbnail Figure 2

The laboratory performance of novel artificial photosynthetic system. (A) The CO production rate of new artificial photosynthetic system with Fe SACs, under different intensities of solar irradiation. (B) The CO selectivity of new artificial photosynthetic system with Fe SACs, under different intensities of solar irradiation. (C) The STC efficiency of new artificial photosynthetic system with Fe SACs, under different intensities of solar irradiation. (D) The CO production rate stability of new artificial photosynthetic system under 1 sun irradiation.

The outdoor artificial photosynthetic demonstration

The commercial single crystalline silicon solar cell panel (1.07 m2 scale), membrane-free electrolytic water splitting device and factory prepared TiC/Cu based solar heating tube were used to build the outdoor artificial photosynthetic system. For maintaining the solar heating system at high temperature all day, a parabolic reflector with 0.198 m2 of irradiated area (Figure S14) was applied to concentrate outdoor sunlight on solar heating device (Figure 3A). A commercial CuOx/ZnO/Al2O3 (SCST-401, Figure S15) was selected as the catalyst for solar heating reverse water-gas-shift reaction (CO2 + H2 → CO + H2O). In outdoor test, the membrane-free electrolytic water splitting device was driven by the silicon solar cell panel to produce H2, and then the H2 and CO2 entered the solar heating system for CO2 hydrogenation (Figure 3B). The artificial photosynthetic system for CO production was tested in December 20, 2021, with an ambient temperature of 2–13°C and a solar irradiation intensity of 0.26–0.49 kW m−2 in the daytime in Baoding City of Hebei Province, China. As shown in Figure 3C, the CO generation occurred at 9:00 AM with a production rate of 27.9 L h−1. After that, the CO generation rate rose to a peak value of 41.4 L h−1 at 12:00 PM and then gradually decreased to 23.6 L h−1 at 16:00 PM. The total amount of CO produced daily was up to 258.4 L. Although the solar intensity and ambient temperature are the lowest in winter, the outdoor system STC for CO production was still in the range of 15% to 15.8% throughout the operating period (Figure 3D, detailed calculation see METHOD SECTION).

thumbnail Figure 3

The outdoor performance of novel artificial photosynthetic system. (A) The location diagram of reflector, solar heating device. (B) The photograph of new artificial photosynthetic demonstration on the roof of the building in Hebei University. (C, D) The CO production rate and STC of new artificial photosynthetic demonstration under ambient sunlight irradiation, on December 20, 2021, in Baoding City, China.

Table 1 lists the data of new artificial photosynthetic systems and the most advanced large-sized artificial photosynthetic systems. Firstly, the size of the outdoor artificial photosynthetic system was 1.268 m2, and all parts can be processed in the factory, showing that the system could realize mass production directly. Secondly, the STCs of lab and outdoor systems for CO2 reduction as CO were 19.4% and 15%–15.8% respectively, which were 2.7 times and 4 times higher than that of reported large-sized artificial photosynthetic systems under lab and outdoor conditions, respectively [13,14]. The total cost of outdoor demonstration was calculated as $1018 per m2 (Figure S16). Table 1 shows that the cost of large-sized artificial photosynthetic devices is too expensive to calculated cost [13,14,45]. Compared with systems that produce mixture of CO and H2 [13,46], the main product of our artificial photosynthetic system is CO. As far as we known, the cheapest cost of small-sized artificial photosynthetic device reported in literatures was ~$7200 per m2 (Table 1) [17], which was 7 times higher than that in our outdoor demonstration. With the ultra-high STC and ultra-low system cost, the system cost recovery time of the outdoor artificial photosynthetic device was calculated by selling product (CO). Referring to the price of CO ($6 per m3) [17], the outdoor system could recover the cost after 833 days of operation, which corresponds to ~3.5 years (detailed calculation see in METHOD SECTION). The service life of the components in this outdoor system for CO production was generally more than 10 years, able to profitable by selling CO.

Table 1

Comparison of the solar driven CO2 reduction systems of this work and the state of the art of solar cells driven artificial photosynthetic systems. IA is the working solar illumination area of device used for CO2 conversion.

CONCLUSIONS

In this work, a novel artificial photosynthesis paradigm was proposed, in which the silicon solar cells were used to drive the membrane free electrolyzer for photovoltaic electrolytic water splitting as O2 and H2. Then, the generated H2 and CO2 were injected into the solar heating system based on a TiC/Cu based device to carry out efficient sunlight driven CO2 hydrogenation due to the high 1 sun-heating temperature of 318°C. The photovoltaic electrolytic reactor eliminated the membrane and used the Ni-plated stainless steel mesh as the electrodes to reduce the cost. As the 240 cm2 of solar heating CO2 hydrogenation device was integrated to 2800 cm2 of silicon solar cell driven photovoltaic electrolytic water splitting device, the system exhibited a CO2 conversion rate of 491 mmol h−1, an STC of 19.4%, a selectivity of 100% for CO production, under 1 sun irradiation. Moreover, an outdoor demonstration with 1.268 m2 of solar irradiation area was constructed, which showed a cost of $1018 per m2, the gas production of 258.4 L per day, the STC of 15%–15.8% for CO production in winter, under ambient solar irradiation, which could neutralize device cost by selling the product of CO within 833 sunny operation days, revealing the ability for direct scalable application.

OUTLOOK

The new artificial photosynthetic system has huge space for STC improvement and flexible product regulated ability. As the silicon solar cell was replaced by triple-junction solar cells for photovoltaic electrocatalytic water splitting, the calculated STC of new artificial photosynthetic system was as high as 28.9% (detailed calculation see Supplementary Methods) , which was higher than the best STC (19.1%) of triple-junction solar cells driven artificial photosynthesis [47]. Further, this system could convert product from CO to CH4 by changing the solar heating CO2 hydrogenation catalysts as commercial Ni/Al2O3 (Figure S17, detailed calculation see Supplementary Methods). Therefore, our system could be a core investigating platform for scientists all over the world to realize carbon neutralization, via converting CO2 and H2O into a variety of chemicals, such as methanol, formic acid even C2+ product, by developing different catalysts. We believe this new artificial photosynthetic system will speed up the development and application of artificial photosynthesis.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable requests.

Acknowledgments

We thank the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technical support provided by the Microanalysis Center, College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University. Qingbo Meng appreciates the encouragement and recommendation of Professor Yue Zhang of Beijing University of Science and Technology for our work which was published on arXiv: 2204.04971 on 11 Apr. 2022.

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (B2022201090, B2021201074, B2021201034 and F2021203097), Hebei Provincial Department of Science and Technology (216Z4303G), Hebei Education Department (QN2022059), the Interdisciplinary Research Program of Natural Science of Hebei University (521100311 and DXK202109) and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hebei University (050001-521100302025 and 050001-513300201004).

Author contributions

Y.L. and Q.M. conceived the project and contributed to the design of the experiments and analysis of the data. Y.L. contributed to the solar heating system strategy. Q.M. proposed the concept for the novel artificial photosynthetic system. S.W. and L.G. contributed to the analysis of the data and the discussion. X.B. and D.Y. performed the TiC/Cu based device preparation and characterizations. X.B., and F.M. performed the catalyst preparation and characterizations. F.M. and X.S. conducted the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and TEM examinations. Y.L. and Q.M. wrote the paper. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Supplementary information

The supporting information is available online at https://doi.org/10.1360/nso/20230033. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

References

All Tables

Table 1

Comparison of the solar driven CO2 reduction systems of this work and the state of the art of solar cells driven artificial photosynthetic systems. IA is the working solar illumination area of device used for CO2 conversion.

All Figures

thumbnail Figure 1

Schematic map of the novel artificial photosynthesis.

In the text
thumbnail Figure 2

The laboratory performance of novel artificial photosynthetic system. (A) The CO production rate of new artificial photosynthetic system with Fe SACs, under different intensities of solar irradiation. (B) The CO selectivity of new artificial photosynthetic system with Fe SACs, under different intensities of solar irradiation. (C) The STC efficiency of new artificial photosynthetic system with Fe SACs, under different intensities of solar irradiation. (D) The CO production rate stability of new artificial photosynthetic system under 1 sun irradiation.

In the text
thumbnail Figure 3

The outdoor performance of novel artificial photosynthetic system. (A) The location diagram of reflector, solar heating device. (B) The photograph of new artificial photosynthetic demonstration on the roof of the building in Hebei University. (C, D) The CO production rate and STC of new artificial photosynthetic demonstration under ambient sunlight irradiation, on December 20, 2021, in Baoding City, China.

In the text

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