Development of Artificial Photosynthesis System using wasted CO2 from Industrial Plants
Panasonic has demonstrated a highly efficient (0.2%) artificial photosynthesis system capable of generating organic materials from wasted carbon dioxide and water generated from incinerators, power plants or other industrial processing plants. The system uses simple structure by applying a nitride semiconductor as a photo-electrode as well as metal catalyst generating mainly formic acid from CO2 and water with light, making it a real advantage in scalability for commercial system in the near future.
The CO2 conversion with the new system uses direct sunlight or focused light. In this system the CO2 reduction happens on a metal catalyst at the opposite side of nitride semiconductor photo-electrode, where the metal catalyst plays an important role in selecting as well as accelerating the reaction. The system comprises of only inorganic materials which can reduce the CO2 with low energy loss, making the amount of reaction products exactly proportional to the light power.
