Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) can now look forward to recreating an energy process that takes place in plants to produce hydrogen fuel from water and sunlight.
NTU’s new Solar Fuels Lab, which is the first of its kind in Asia, was officially opened on Tuesday morning by NTU President Designate Professor Bertil Andersson, who is a pioneer in the “artificial leaf” technology.
Inspired by nature’s ability to recreate an energy-producing process through photosynthesis, researchers at NTU will be working to find suitable combinations of chemical catalysts that can speed up the artificial photosynthesis process using minimal energy.
This will be used in a device which will be able to extract large amounts of hydrogen from water using sunlight.
Current technology requires huge amounts of energy to draw minute amounts of hydrogen from water, which makes it commercially unviable.
When perfected, this “artificial leaf” technology can reduce dependence on crude oil and help to ease problems caused by global warming and climate change.
