Solar Based Hydrogen Production

Principal Investigator: Dr. I. Dincer

This project aims to develop, fabricate and test the engineering equipment needed to scale up a new photosynthetic light-driven process that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The process is more efficient and promises lower-cost production of hydrogen than other existing technologies. It uses specially designed molecular complexes in a substrate material for incoming photons to transfer electrons to a central reaction site, which then catalyzes or facilitates a water-splitting process. This project aims to scale up the process to larger capacities of hydrogen production with engineering lab-scale equipment. In addition, it will analyze the system operation and perform thermodynamic optimization studies to improve its performance.

Dr. G. Naterer, Professor

Solar Photochemical Research Facility