Research

Solving our energy crisis: Professor Lee Cronin

Issued: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 12:16:00 BST

Lee CroninAn interdisciplinary team of biologists, chemists and engineers at the University is hoping that their groundbreaking research into ways of manufacturing clean energy directly from the sun will provide an alternative to fossil fuels.

Chemistry Professor Lee Cronin, principal investigator on the project, explains: ‘We are trying to replicate photosynthesis, so we can stop burning fossil fuels.

What this means is we could use sunlight to generate carbonneutral “solar fuels”, you wouldn’t need to mine oil, coal or gas, and we could create fuel on a timescale that’s billions of times faster than the current process.’

The research into solar fuels hinges around how to quickly and efficiently oxidise water. Although the by-product is oxygen, this process produces the electrons that can be used, in conjunction with a carbon source like carbon dioxide, to produce a liquid fuel not dissimilar to the fuels we use today.

This is a very ambitious goal, however, so one intermediate goal may be to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. Once done, oxygen and hydrogen can be stored in separate tanks, which act like batteries, before they are recombined in a reaction that releases energy and water as the only by-products.

Developing the theory is one thing, but even trickier is the task of translating science into solution. This requires the skills and resources of experts from a range of specialist backgrounds working collaboratively – this is what sets Glasgow apart from the rest.

‘I think what makes Glasgow unique is that we have three or four groups, which I’m coordinating through the Glasgow Solar Fuels project. We combine the work, not only of biologists and chemists, but also engineers, so we have the ability to take projects from conception to the finished device.’

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