It seems the day is not far when we will have clean & green flying machines instead of the gas guzzling jets which rules the sky today. Nathan Lewis, a chemist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has come up with a new technology called artificial photosynthesis where solar energy will be converted directly into fuel instead of energy.
The Photovoltaic (PV) cells created by Mr. Lewis splits water molecules to generate hydrogen gas. The cells are so powerful & efficient that they are capable of converting sunlight into chemical energy 10 to 40 times more times more efficiently than most crops.
But work is far from being finished. The biggest challenge that lies ahead will be the formation of hydrocarbons by combining hydrogen with carbon dioxide similar to the structure of diesel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Currently no established commercial processes exist for doing that. But the man behind all this seems confident & he believes that within 5 years they will have a working prototype.
The market for alternative fuel is huge & still growing. Due to all hoopla surrounding global warming, many nations are looking towards clean energy to power their future needs. Many private firms, therefore, looking to cash in on this opportunity by creating alternative sources energy at an affordable price.
In a similar experiment of sorts, last year in July, an airplane covered with PV cells was flown in Switzerland. The plane, aptly named Solar Impulse, flew for 26 hours before coming back on the ground.
Via: The Christian Science Monitor
