Solar/chemical energy hybridization

Solar/chemical energy hybridization via Boudouard reaction... 

HIGH CONVERSION EFFICIENCY OF SOLAR ENERGY INTO CHEMICAL ENERGY IN SOLAR/FOSSIL ENERGY HYBRIDIZATION... 

In order to make a transition to a sustainable society, initially, fossil fuels will play an important role. Fossil fuels will be expended in building the first fully sustainable chemical and energy plants (as per the definitions in this book). In the short term, hybrid technologies may be popular, which mark the transition from the "fossil period" to the "solar period," which could be the final sustainable society. Undoubtedly, natural gas will become important in the short term. 

In order to avoid a social shock when the global energy system should transfer from fossil system to the CO2 recycling system using renewable energy, a hybridization between fossil and solar energy should be also discussed. That is, there are various kind of energy sources (solar, fossil fuels and their complex sources), and of carbon sources (CO2 from flue gas of combustion, CO2 from exhaust gas of fossil fuel chemical conversion, and carbon of fossil fuel itself). 

M.C. Orilall, U. Wiesner, Block copolymer based composition and morphology control in nanostructured hybrid materials for energy conversion and storage solar cells, batteries, and fuel cells. Chemical Society Reviews 40 (2011) 520-535. 

It s not clear if the best format for the metal leaf technology is the wafer, or another form like nanoparticles, or a ship-in-a-bottle arrangement. Even a hybrid microbe-electrode system is under development. The full fruits of capturing solar energy may still be a decade or more away (as they seem to have been for several decades now), but 1 expect that nature can continue to provide chemical inspiration as we move forward. The power comes from the peculiar chemistry of manganese, and the trick is figuring out how to channel it. 

Xu, C., Wang, X.D., Wang, Z.L., 2009. Nanowire structured hybrid cell for concurrently scavenging solar and mechanical energies. Journal of the American Chemical Society 131, 5866-5872. 

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