Breaking the Wall of Energy Supply. How Heterogeneous Catalysis Can Replace Fossil Fuels by Robert Schlögl Director, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Honorary Professor, Humboldt-Universität and Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. 1. How Heterogeneous Catalysis Can Replace Fossil Fuels

2 Energy challenge: The wall of chemical energy storage Novel chemistry at the centre stage Robert Schlögl Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG Energy challenge: The wall of chemical energy storage Novel chemistry at the centre stage Robert Schlögl Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG A modest Rest of the fallen Berlin Wall… High Ammount of Energy to build it......and as well to Tear it down

Fossil energy: always (?) at hand… 3 Source: IEA, Greenpeace, 2011 CO 2 emissions (Mio t)

The wall: why store the sun on earth? 4

The sun-gap…..bricks in the wall Thermo-mechanical storage is too ineffective 5

What we find… 6 We break the wall by creating artificial solar fuels like nature uses sugar

the wall 7

Can we split the water? 8 We use catalysts like nature does in photosynthesis: We need high performance systems

Can we make the solar fuel? 9 We need a catalyst with structural and electronic modifiers Then we can form methanol and transportation fuels and polymers

We break the wall….. 10

… when we keep on remodelling the energy system 0.17% of the earth surface receives all energy needs of mankind. Collect now solar energy by a combination of physical and chemical technologies. Store large amounts of this energy in chemical bonds. Complete and expand existing knowledge into a fundament of technologies. Price and prejudice: You need to support their implementation! 11

12 Dem Anwenden muss das Erkennen vorausgehen Max Planck Thank You Dem Anwenden muss das Erkennen vorausgehen Max Planck Thank You