Solar energy is growing at a very rapid pace and it is the one renewable source of energy that is growing the fastest. But on of the major hurdles that the industry faces till today is efficiency. It is a part of the solar energy problem that is posing a real challenge to all those who are designing and using solar panel. Now we may have an alternate option to harness the solar energy and it might come from the magical chemical world.
Professor Chaurasia of the University of Birmingham, UK, is developing a unique process in which propanol is dehydrogenated using a catalyst and clean, solar energy. The hydrogen then generates electricity through the courtesy of a Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell. The byproduct of dehydrogenated propanol, in the form of acetone and the protons (H+) and electrons (e-) then all recombine to form more propanol, which is then ready to start the project all over again.
While the process might sound complicated for those who have no interest of knowledge of the chemical world, it might be interesting to see how it works. It’s a way of harnessing the instability of propanol to push electrons onto the grid. It’s not a new way of creating hydrogen. Current solar cells are getting cheaper and more efficient every day. And though Chaurasia thinks that his chemical cells could be competitive, that will depend on several factors. The propanol is cheap, PEM fuel cells and titanium catalysts are not. So it all again comes down to the economics of it all.
