Swiss Researchers Have Turned Solar into Hydrogen Power at Scale For the First Time

A group of Switzerland-based researchers has achieved what experts in the green energy industry are calling “record-high efficiency” by using solar energy to produce hydrogen. The system, although a lab experiment, scaled to surpassed expectations—and crossed the coveted 1-kilowatt target that must be met before moving to the commercial phase for green hydrogen production.

Converting Solar Energy To Fuel

A new study published by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Nature Energy describes the artificial photosynthesis system as an efficient converter of solar energy to usable fuel. In addition to the production of other functional byproducts – water and heat.

EPFL’s School of Engineering’s Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering has successfully demonstrated the first-ever system-level production of solar-generated hydrogen, according to the lab’s head, Sophia Haussener.

“Unlike typical lab-scale demonstrations, it includes all auxiliary devices and components, so it gives us a better idea of the energy efficiency you can expect once you consider the complete system, and not just the device itself,” Haussener said in a press release.

The solar energy to hydrogen converter is made up of a satellite dish-like system, functioning as an artificial tree as wide as 23 feet in diameter. According to the researchers, the dish concentrates radiation from the sun, making it nearly 1,000 times more powerful.

As water goes through the system via pipes, a preconnected reactor utilizes photoelectrochemical cells to tap the concentrated solar radiation power to split water molecules into elements of hydrogen and oxygen.

This process, dubbed artificial photosynthesis, produces heat, which can be exploited by transmitting it through a heat-exchanging mechanism, leading to a practical result.

It is worth noting that artificial photosynthesis does not give out carbon dioxide, meaning it has no impact on the environment. At scale, it serves as an example of a zero-carbon footprint hydrogen production system.

Typically, the production of fuel hydrogen involves the separation of natural gas components, a method that causes environmental harm due to the resulting carbon dioxide emissions.

“With an output power of over 2 kilowatts, we’ve cracked the 1-kilowatt ceiling for our pilot reactor while maintaining record-high efficiency for this large scale,” Haussener said in the news statement. “The hydrogen production rate achieved in this work represents a really encouraging step toward the commercial realization of this technology.”

Artificial photosynthesis has 2 primary outputs; hydrogen and heat. However, oxygen which is a byproduct (a waste product), can be used to serve other purposes.

In a prime instance of commercialization, the university-affiliated SoHHytec spinoff has collaborated with a Swiss metal manufacturing plant to use the hydrogen for metal annealing procedures, while the generated oxygen is utilized for medical purposes in adjacent hospitals. The heat serves the facility’s hot water requirements.

“With the pilot demonstration at EPFL, we have achieved a major milestone by demonstrating unprecedented efficiency at high output power densities,” Saurabh Tembhurne, SoHHytech co-founder and CEO, said in the press release. “We are now scaling up a system in an artificial garden-like setup, where each of these ‘artificial trees’ is deployed in a modular fashion.”

Future Plans and Carbon Dioxide Splitting

The researchers are confident that the system can be adapted to serve both residential and commercial settings to supply heat and hot water, not to mention powering hydrogen fuel cells, which can be used to charge electric vehicles.

Although hydrogen is currently used primarily for fertilizer production and assisting in oil refining, experts are exploring the potential of utilizing hydrogen as a source of power for commercial purposes, such as planes and trucks, as well as for heating and powering homes and businesses.

The research group intends to continue breaking the gas ceiling by splitting carbon dioxide next.

With such a breakthrough, these solar energy hydrogen converters, otherwise known as artificial trees, can be used to serve a myriad of industrial and domestic purposes. The next destination for innovation in green energy.

“The production of synthetic fuels and chemicals from solar energy and abundant reagents offers a promising pathway to a sustainable fuel economy and chemical industry,” the researcher wrote in the study.

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