Energy crisis and global warming are the key major issues that we are facing now-a-days. Still in 21st century, we are heavily dependent on the fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas as our primary energy source. Technological advancement and human industrial activities do not only accelerate the consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels, but also result in escalated greenhouse gas (especially carbon dioxide, CO2) emission into the atmosphere which causes global warming. Thus, the conversion of CO2 into useful fuels is on demand and a step towards attaining a carbon-neutral energy cycle. Artificial photosynthesis is the key process where CO2 and water (H2O) can efficiently be converted into renewable fuels and chemicals using sunlight as an energy source. On the other hand, plastic pollution is of major environmental concern, as the majority of waste plastics accumulate in landfills or escapes into the environment. As the most recycling strategies being environmental polluting or requiring a high energy input, an attractive alternative solution to deal with plastic pollution would involve the sustainable conversion of plastic waste into industrially-relevant value-added chemicals. Sunlight is the most abundant and exploitable energy source we have. Thus, efficient use of solar energy for the CO2 and plastics conversion into sustainable fuels and chemicals would provide us an impactful solution towards these environmental issues. The major objectives of this project were:
1. Development of a photoelectrochemical reactor for simultaneous CO2 conversion and plastic reforming
2. Carbon capture and its efficient photoelectrochemical utilization
3. Solar-driven conversion of CO2 into multicarbon fuels
