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
Fossil energy: always (?) at hand… 2 Source: IEA, Greenpeace, 2011 CO 2 emissions (Mio t)
The wall: why store the sun on earth? 3
The sun-gap…..bricks in the wall Thermo-mechanical storage is too ineffective 4
What we find… 5 We break the wall by creating artificial solar fuels like nature uses sugar
the wall 6
Can we split the water? 7 We use catalysts like nature does in photosynthesis: We need high performance systems
Can we make the solar fuel? 8 We need a catalyst with structural and electronic modifiers Then we can form methanol and transportation fuels and polymers
We break the wall….. 9
… 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! 10