Fossil Fuels may soon become a thing of the past, thanks to this magic liquid!
by Grace Yoon, Edited by Dominique Samantha & Jason Liu, Layout by Tristan Castro, Art by Sahithi Lingampalli, & Blogged by Sahithi Lingampalli
Many people are unaware of this magical liquid that can make fossil fuels a thing of the past; this fuel source is called solar thermal fuel. Solar thermal fuel is composed of nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon, that absorbs sunlight and stores the solar radiation for months or even years, which is ultimately released back as heat and energy. The sunlight required for the magic liquid, notably,only takes 5% of the available light to work. Jeffery Grossman stated, “A solar thermal fuel is like a rechargeable battery, but instead of electricity, you put sunlight in and get heat out, triggered on demand.”
Solar energy has already been seen as one of the cleanest and renewable power sources. With further development of solar thermal fuel, the power source can be more practical since it can store solar energy for over a decade. What’s more, the fuel is reusable and releases energy without the emission of greenhouse gases.
This fuel keeps developing in Professor Jeffrey Grossman’s laboratory and many other labs, as well as universities worldwide. Although this is not a fully developed technology, it has a wide usage range of heating and other possible appliances. Grossman stated, “You could use that thermal energy for your water heater, your dishwasher, or your clothes dryer. There could be lots of industrial applications as well.” The number of applications that can use this cleaner energy source is tremendous. The energy used by appliances for sterilization, cooking, distillation and other commercial uses accounts for 7% of the total energy usage in the European Union.
Professor Kasper Moth-Poulsen claimed he and his research team had developed a prototype system to experiment with solar thermal fuels. The sunlight that hits the transparent tubes would rearrange the bonds between carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen, creating a fuel source that makes the norbornadiene compound convert into a quadricyclane compound. As a result, the thermal energy can be stored in uninsulated tanks inside buildings and can be reused multiple times by collecting solar energy. Moth-Poulsen and his team reportedly ran through this system 125 times without significant degradation. He also estimates that solar thermal fuel can store up to 250 watt-hours of energy per kilogram. Through his experimentation with this magic liquid, Moth-Poulsen wrote multiple research papers that caught the attention of many investors and companies that gave solar thermal fuel a chance of commercialization.
However, even this magic liquid has its disadvantages. Some examples being: the considerable installation fees, limited availability of installers, thermal fuel being less efficient in the winter and is unable to be used at night. Moreover, the cost of the commercial version of solar thermal fuels is unclear. Other issues can also arise as more prototypes and experiments are created but the advantages still outweigh the disadvantages as the magic liquid would be environmentally friendly, renewable, reduce the number of fossil fuels used and be cheaper in the long run. Solar thermal energy will hopefully replace fossil fuels for good after further research on how reliable and discovering the extent of its powers.
References
Tata Center. (n.d.). SOLAR THERMAL FUELS. TATA Center Technology + Design. https://tatacenter.mit.edu/portfolio/solar-thermal-fuels/#:~:text=The%20solar%20thermal%20fuel%20is,in%20the%20areas%20of%20heating
Moore, A., & Hydrogen Fuel News. (2018, November 7). Revolutionary solar thermal fuel can store solar energy for over ten years. Hydrogen Fuel News. https://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/revolutionary-solar-thermal-fuel-can-store-solar-energy-for-over-ten-years/8536313/#:~:text=The%20specialized%20fluid%20can%20reportedly,are%20environmentally%20friendly%20and%20reusable
Gibbs, W., & NBC News. (2018, November 4). Scientists are trying to bottle solar energy and turn it into liquid fuel. MACH. https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/scientists-are-trying-bottle-solar-energy-turn-it-liquid-fuel-ncna930676
Originally published at https://issuu.com.
