Renewable Energy via Sustainable Hydrogen - RESH

Project summary

RESH proposes clean and sustainable low-carbon energy technology with a radically new idea for green hydrogen production. It focuses on photo-electrochemical water splitting enriched with piezo- and pyrocatalysis, as well as novel Ni-based noble-metal-free co-catalysts, to maximize solar fuel production. The idea is based on heterostructures that combine protective oxide layers with a semiconductor Si in an epitaxial way using graphene-based interfaces and pulsed laser deposition technology for atomically controlled growth. Among most environmentally relevant aspects of the project is the reuse of end-of-life solar panels in photo-electrochemical devices, after their integration with oxide heterostructures. The goal of the project is to achieve beyond the state-of-the-art solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of >10% with long-term stability in the ambient environment. Finally, RESH proposes green ammonia production to develop scalable and efficient storage and distribution of H2.