Recipient Organization
GINER, INC.
89 RUMFORD AVENUE
NEWTON,MA 02466
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Fossil fuels are the dominant energy source in the agriculture sector, comprising a large fraction of farming operational expenditures and emitting CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Despite recent market penetration, renewable energy adoption on farms remains low. Large capital costs, intermittency, and immobility of renewable energy prevents adoption on small and mid-size farms. A particularly detrimental limitation is that electricity produced by solar photovoltaics cannot power fuel-consuming devices (i.e., tractors, furnaces, generators). As an alternative, solar fuels represent a broad array of chemical compounds produced when incident solar energy drives a set of chemical reactions that convert water and CO2 to storable and transportable fuels. Solar-to-fuel generation can be performed in a decentralized fashion, offering substantial opportunity for small and mid-size farms to generate their own fuels onsite.To increase renewable energy utilization and reduce CO2 emissions on small and mid-sized farms, Giner will design an intermediate-temperature device, called a Solid Oxide Photoelectrochemical Cell (SOPC), which converts sunlight, waste CO2, and H2O into combustible hydrocarbon fuel. The SOPC will offer higher efficiencies, conversions, production rates, and current densities than incumbent technologies. Giner's SOPC will be housed in a solar concentrator, which will focus photons onto the SOPC and heat the device. The product fuel (i.e., synthetic natural gas or diesel) will be compatible with typical farming applications. This technology will also reduce fuel consumption costs for small and mid-size farms, offering a financial incentive to implement renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
100%
Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to bridge the renewable energy gap, decrease fuel costs, and reduce CO2 emissions for small and mid-size farms by designing an apparatus that converts sunlight, waste CO2, and H2O into combustible hydrocarbon fuel, which is compatible with typical farming applications. This device will offer small and mid-size farms the unique ability to produce fuel onsite from a renewable energy source. Giner will perform this energy conversion using a new device called a Solid Oxide Photoelectrochemical Cell (SOPC), which will be housed in a unitized solar concentrator device for easy installation in a field or on a rooftop. Critically, the device will be scalable, meeting the fuel productivity potential of small, mid-size, and even large farms.While Giner's ultimate goal is to engineer a device that can electrolyze H2O and CO2 to produce hydrocarbon fuels, H2O electrolysis with an SOPC has yet to be experimentally demonstrated. As such, Giner's Phase I project will focus on illustrating the feasibility of water electrolysis, and the relevant engineering principles will guide a Phase II effort to electrolyze CO2. Additionally, Giner will develop a techno-economic model that describes SOPC capital cost and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as a function of cell performance, materials, and manufacturing method. The techno-economic model will guide device optimization in Phase II, ensuring that the SOPC is economically viable for use on small and mid-size farms. Minimizing capital cost of the device will be particularly important so that small and mid-size farms have a low cost barrier to purchase the device. Engineering a low-cost solar-to-fuel generator will provide farms with the capability to produce storable, transportable, and useful fuels from solar, promoting the adoption of renewable energy and mitigating CO2 emissions in the agricultural sector. Producing fuel onsite will also reduce fuel consumption costs for small and mid-size farms, offering a financial incentive to use solar energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.The proposed SOPC device will contribute to several USDA goals. This project first addresses Strategic Goal 1 "Assist Rural Communities To Create Prosperity So They Are Self-Sustaining, Repopulating, And Economically Thriving." Providing rural farms with an opportunity to convert renewable solar energy, into a storable and transportable fuel will permit rural communities to improve self-sustainability, reduce fuel consumption costs, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, this project addresses Strategic Goal 2: "Ensure Our National Forests And Private Working Lands Are Conserved, Restored, And Made More Resilient To Climate Change, While Enhancing Our Water Resources." Inventing a technology that allows a renewable energy source to power fuel-consuming devices will reduce farming greenhouse gas emissions and slow the global warming trend.Giner's Phase I project objectives are listed below, with the ultimate milestone of demonstrating a water-splitting SOPC:1) Develop a SOPC test fixture that will permit H2O electrolysis testing at elevated temperature with an optically transparent window for a simulated solar spectrum to pass onto the cell.2) Fabricate 16 cm2 button cells of PV heterojunctions and full SOPCs via tape casting.3) Test button cells for I-V characteristics, oxygen pumping capability, and, subsequently, H2O electrolysis functionality.4) Derive a techno-economic model that describes SOPC system cost as a function of sub-component costs, manufacturing process, and performance.5) Deliver a report documenting Giner's successful outcomes.?
Project Methods
The intermittency associated with solar energy and the limited end uses of electrical energy must be addressed to realize the full potential of solar energy in the agricultural sector. As an alternative to solar PV, solar fuels represent a broad array of chemical compounds produced when incident solar energy drives a set of chemical reactions that convert H2O and / or CO2 to hydrogen (H2), syngas, or hydrocarbons. In essence, solar-to-fuel conversion processes provide a mechanism to generate storable and transportable fuels directly from incident solar energy. Solar-to-fuel generation can be performed in a decentralized fashion, offering substantial opportunity for small and mid-size farms to generate their own fuels onsite. Competing energy storage technologies, such as batteries, flywheels, or supercapacitors, have relatively low energy densities, are difficult to transport, and cannot power fuel-consuming devices. For example, solar energy converted to electricity could be stored in a lithium-ion battery. All-electric tractors, however, are not currently practical, and electric energy, stored in batteries, is not readily transferable for these mobile applications. Given the attractive features of solar fuels to provide a transportable and storable renewable energy medium, the scientific community has dedicated significant effort towards the production of such fuels using room-temperature photoelectrochemical cells (PECs) or high-temperature thermochemical cycles. Despite significant scientific investment, these incumbent solar-to-fuel conversion technologies suffer from relatively low efficiencies and are not yet economically viable.Giner will collaborate with a diverse team, compiling expertise in SOPC materials, solid oxide system design, and fuel processing. Dr. William Chueh (Stanford University, Stanford, CA) and Dr. Kelsey Stoerzinger (Pacific Northwest National Lab, Richland, WA) will provide input to materials selection and cell design for Giner's SOPC. Dr. Chueh is an expert in high-temperature photoelectrochemical processes, and, to the best of our knowledge, is a co-inventor on the only U.S. patent application (2015/0053568 A1) describing a SOPC device.13 Dr. Stoerzinger is an expert in oxide materials chemistry, catalysis, and high temperature experimentation. Mr. Thomas Cognata (Paragon Space Development Corporation, Phoenix, AZ) will also provide consulting services. Paragon Space Development Corporation (Paragon SDC) has significant experience designing, fabricating, and deploying Solid Oxide Electrolyzers (SOEs) for dissociating CO2 into carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen (O2). SOEs have similar operating fundamentals to Giner's proposed SOPC, and, as such, Mr. Cognata will advise Giner on device fabrication and testing methods. Additionally, Giner has formed preliminary Phase II work plans with Paragon SDC and an additional industrial collaborator, Precision Combustion, Inc. (PCI, Hartford, CT), which will commence pending the completion of a successful Phase I program. In Phase II, Paragon SDC will design the solar concentrator that will house Giner's SOPC, and PCI will design the balance-of-plant, including gas storage devices and pre-processing equipment.Phase I research efforts will focus on delivering a 16 cm2 SOPC that can electrolyze H2O under incident sunlight. While Giner's ultimate goal is to engineer a device that can electrolyze H2O and CO2 to produce hydrocarbon fuels, H2O electrolysis with an SOPC has yet to be experimentally demonstrated. As such, Giner's Phase I project will focus on illustrating the feasibility of water electrolysis, and the relevant engineering principles will guide a Phase II effort to electrolyze CO2. Additionally, Giner will develop a techno-economic model that describes SOPC capital cost and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as a function of cell performance, materials, and manufacturing method. The techno-economic model will guide device optimization in Phase II, ensuring that the SOPC is economically viable for use on small and mid-size farms. Minimizing capital cost of the device will be particularly important so that small and mid-size farms have a low cost barrier to purchase the device. Engineering a low-cost solar-to-fuel generator will provide farms with the capability to produce storable, transportable, and useful fuels from solar, promoting the adoption of renewable energy and mitigating CO2 emissions in the agricultural sector. Producing fuel onsite will also reduce fuel consumption costs for small and mid-size farms, offering a financial incentive to use solar energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.