Recent advances in device manufacturing and reactor engineering have led to the successful demonstration of solar fuel production on a square-meter scale. Such systems can operate beyond several weeks under outdoor conditions (i.e., natural variations in light intensity and temperature fluctuations), showcasing the potential of photo(electro)chemistry towards real-world implementation. This symposium will provide an overview of the latest progress in scalable solar fuel technologies towards H2 evolution, water oxidation and CO2 reduction. To this end, we invite submissions on practical aspects of photo(electro)catalysis including scalable fabrication methods, stability and corrosion, modularity, rational device and reactor design, robust materials (e.g., oxide and carbon-based light absorbers), commercial applicability, or life-cycle considerations. In addition, we look forward to contributions on innovative approaches to practical solar light harvesting, including high-throughput fabrication or concentrated light systems. This symposium aims to bring together a wide range of complementary expertise in light harvesting, catalysis and chemical engineering, which will bring artificial photosynthesis systems closer to real-world applications.
- Photoelectrode scalability and modularity
- Material design towards long-term operation
- Device engineering and reactor design (experiment and modelling)
- Real-world benchmarking: light intermittency and temperature fluctuations
- Photo(electro)catalyst screening and large-scale fabrication
Fatwa Abdi is an Associate Professor at the School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong. Until July 2023, he was a group leader and the deputy head of the Institute for Solar Fuels, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB). He obtained his PhD (cum laude) in Chemical Engineering from TU Delft, the Netherlands, in 2013. He was the recipient of the Martinus van Marum prize from the Royal Dutch Society of Sciences and Humanities. His research focusses on the development of novel (photo)electrode materials as well as engineering and scale-up of devices for solar fuels and chemicals conversion.
Virgil Andrei is a Nanyang Assistant Professor (NAP) in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at NTU Singapore. His research revolves around the integration of renewable energy technologies (photoelectrocatalysis, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics) for effective solar-to-chemical synthesis. His work places a strong focus on rational material, catalyst and device design, introducing modern fabrication techniques towards low-cost, large-scale solar fuel applications.
Virgil was born in Bucharest, Romania. He obtained his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in chemistry from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he studied thermoelectric polymer pastes and films in the group of Prof. Klaus Rademann (2014–2016). He then pursued a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Cambridge (2016–2020), where he developed perovskite-based artificial leaves in the group of Prof. Erwin Reisner, working closely with the optoelectronics group of Prof. Richard Friend at the Cavendish Laboratory. During his Title A Research Fellowship at St. John’s College, Cambridge (2020-2025), he introduced unconventional concepts including floating thin-film devices for water splitting and carbon dioxide reduction, pixelated devices for long term hydrogen production, or integrated thermoelectric modules for solar waste heat harvesting. As a visiting Winton Fellow in the group of Prof. Peidong Yang at the University of California, Berkeley (2022), he expanded the reaction scope of these systems further to value-added hydrocarbons and organic oxidation products.
Vincent Artero was born in 1973. He is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm; D/S 93) and of the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6). He received the Ph.D. degree in 2000 under the supervision of Prof. A. Proust. His doctoral work dealt with organometallic derivatives of polyoxometalates. After a postdoctoral stay at the University of Aachen (Aix la Chapelle) with Prof. U. Kölle, he joined in 2001 the group of Prof. M. Fontecave in Grenoble with a junior scientist position in the Life Science Division of CEA. Since 2016, he is Research Director at CEA and leads the SolHyCat group. His current research interests are in bio-inspired chemistry including catalysis related to hydrogen energy and artificial photosynthesis.
Vincent Artero received the "Grand Prix Mergier-Bourdeix de l'Académie des Sciences" in 2011 and has been granted with a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC, photocatH2ode project 2012-2017). He's a member of the Young academy of Europe (YAE). He currently acts as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the ARCANE Excellence Laboratory Network (LABEX) for bio-driven chemistry in Grenoble and as co-head of the French network (CNRS-Groupement de recherche) on Solar Fuels. Since 2016, Vincent Artero is associate editor of the Royal Society of Chemistry journal "Sustainable Energy and Fuels". From January 2018 onward, he actsas associate editor of the Royal Society of Chemistry flagship journal "Chemical Science"
Sophia Haussener is a Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modelling and experimentation. Her research interests include: thermal sciences, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, electro-magnetism, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales. She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) between 2011 and 2012. She has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), and the Raymond Viskanta Award (2019), and is a recipient of a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014).
Roel van de Krol is head of the Insitute for Solar Fuels at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fuer Materialien und Energie (HZB), and professor at the Chemistry Department of TU Berlin. After earning his PhD from TU Delft in 2000 and a postdoctoral stay at M.I.T. (USA), he returned to TU Delft where he was an assistant professor until 2012. At HZB, his research focuses on the development of materials and devices for the photoelectrochemical conversion of sunlight to chemical fuels. Understanding how surface and bulk defects in thin films and nanomaterials affect light absorption, charge transport, recombination and catalytic activity is at the heart of these efforts.