Professors Han Gardeniers and Jurriaan Huskens (both employed at the MESA+ research institute) have received a research subsidy of 712,000 euros from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) and Shell. 7 of the 32 proposals submitted were granted a subsidy.
Gardeniers and Huskens have been awarded 712,000 euros for their research into how to use photocatalytic membranes and sunlight to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, the latter being one of the fuels of the future. It is already possible to produce hydrogen from water and sunlight, but this is not very efficient because sunlight is now first converted into electricity, which is then used to produce hydrogen. By skipping this step, it should, in principle, be possible to greatly improve the efficiency of this process. However, this involves quite some technological challenges, which the UT researchers try to tackle in their research project.
For large-scale energy production using sustainable energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy, energy storage is necessary in order to ensure that the right amount of energy is available at any desired time. When there is no wind and the sun is not shining, there still needs to be sufficient electric energy. That is why NWO, FOM and Shell have – within the multidisciplinary scientific program called 'carbon-neutral fuels' – have provided five million euros for research into the clean production of carbon-neutral fuels produced from water and carbon dioxide.