2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
NOVEL SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEM USING WATER AND SULFUR
| Project/Area Number |
14103016
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
資源開発工学
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| Research Institution | TOHOKU UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
TOHJI Kazuyuki Tohoku University, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Professor, 大学院環境科学研究科, 教授 (10175474)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
BALACHANDRAN Jeyadevan Tohoku University, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Professor, 大学院環境科学研究科, 教授 (80261593)
SHINODA Kozo Tohoku University, Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Associate Professor, 多元物質科学研究所, 助教授 (10311549)
INOUE Chihiro Tohoku University, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Professor, 大学院環境科学研究科, 教授 (30271878)
SATO Yoshinori Tohoku University, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Research Associate, 大学院環境科学研究科, 助手 (30374995)
NAKAMURA Takashi Tohoku University, Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Professor, 多元物質科学研究所, 教授 (20112360)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2006
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| Keywords | Solar energy / Photocatalyst / Hydrogen / Hydrogen sulfide / Circulation of sulfur / Fullerene / Carbon cluster / Water |
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| Research Abstract |
This year, we concentrated our research on the following topics aiming the accomplishment of solar energy conversion system (SECS)
1.Development of highly efficient photocatalyst-
This year, we succeeded in scaling up the photocatalyst synthesis process (developed last year) to obtain necessary quantity of CdS particles for efficient SECS. As a consequence, this year' s research was focused on the development of a photocatalytic cell that utilizes hydrogen sulfide (H_2S) dissolved in alkaline solution as raw material and separate the hydrogen evolved effectively.
2.Removal of by-products evolved during reaction-
When H_2S is photosplit, besides hydrogen, sulfur clusters (SC), which hinders the reaction is also produced as a by-product. Thus, a physical separation process based on electron transfer characteristics was developed to recover SC without degrading the reactants in the system. In this process, fullerene (C_<60>), which stably disperses in highly alkaline conditions, was used as a
… More
n electron donor. When fullerene was introduced into the yellow colored suspension dispersing SC, the suspension turned colorless instantaneously. Furthermore, sulfur (S) recovered by heat-treating sulfur-contained fullerene was used for the preparation of the raw material to produce H_2S.
3.Reproduction of hydrogen sulfide from recovered sulfur
Though circulation of sulfur was attempted by treating the same with water under hydrothermal conditions until last year, reproduction of H_2S using sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) was attempted this year. As a result, we succeeded in the production of biogas containing 15 % of H_2S, which is equivalent to methane fermentation.
4.Enrichment of hydrogen sulfide
Since the H_2S produced by treating sulfur with SRB is associated with large quantities of methane and carbon dioxide, solid and liquid absorbents based enrichment technology was developed to obtain nearly 100 % H_2S.
Solar energy conversion system was accomplished by carrying out the above researches. Less
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