Low-cost photoreactors for highly photon/energy-efficient solar-driven synthesis

Solar-driven photocatalytic processes are an emerging field that in-spires hopes and dreams of a sustainable future on planet Earth. Us-ing carbon dioxide and water as feedstocks, photocatalytic pro-cesses could deliver the energy and carbon feedstock for the future world economy. However, until today, low achieved photoca-talytic efficiencies and high costs of photoreaction technology are hurdles for photocatalytic processes at scale. Within this contribu-tion, a low-cost, milli-to-micro structured, and panel-like photoreac-tor concept, which is suitable for small-scale decentral and large-scale solar farm applications, is introduced. The key feature is a high achieved photocatalytic efficiency at a low design complexity and system cost. The optical modeling and analysis reveal achiev-able limits and prevalent loss mechanisms cumulating in a concise design guideline for the proposed photoreactors. The guideline comprehensibly establishes a connection between design parame-ters and performance metrics at a universal level, thereby providing a basis for adaptation and further development in the field of solar -driven photosynthesis.

Automated summary

Solar-driven photocatalytic processes offer hopes and dreams for a sustainable future, utilizing carbon dioxide and water as feedstocks for energy and carbon production. However, low efficiencies and high costs are hurdles for scaling up photocatalytic processes. This contribution introduces a low-cost, panel-like photoreactor concept suitable for small-scale and large-scale solar farm applications, achieving high photocatalytic efficiency with a simple design. Optical modeling and analysis establish a design guideline, connecting parameters and performance metrics at a universal level for solar-driven photosynthesis.