Research database

To meet global climate goals and European Green Deal priorities, the availability of affordable, CO2-neutral fuel is crucial, especially for sectors like aviation and maritime that are challenging to electrify fully. Current alternative fuels face issues such as high costs, limited feedstocks, land use competition, and low energy conversion efficiency. To achieve sustainable and affordable solar fuels, disruptive technological advancements are necessary. While the sun provides abundant energy, efficient capture and conversion of solar energy pose challenges. Photosynthesis, the natural process for converting solar energy into chemical carriers, is relatively inefficient. Key issues include limited solar light spectrum capture, slow enzymatic conversions, and high energy consumption in CO2 fixation metabolism. Natural photosynthesis in crops results in low Photosynthetic Efficiency (PE), typically around 1% or below, and biofuel production from these crops further reduces solar-to-fuel conversion efficiencies below 0.5%. Microalgae, fast-growing photosynthetic micro-organisms, offer a promising alternative as they can produce lipids for fuel production in high quantities. The SUN-PERFORM project aims to enhance microalgae's efficiency by integrating artificial photosystems with engineered microalgae, potentially doubling the overall solar-to-fuel production efficiency. The project also leverages advances in nanocrystal design to create artificial light-harvesting photosystems, capturing solar wavelengths inefficiently used by natural photosystems. Synthetic biology enables the implementation of improved CO2 fixation pathways into microalgae, reducing energy losses and enhancing enzymatic rates. The integration of nanocrystal-based artificial photosystems and synthetic CO2 fixation metabolism in photobioreactor systems for two microalgal platforms aims to achieve at least three-fold improved solar-to-fuel conversion efficiencies. SUN-PERFORM targets demonstrating efficiencies between 1.5% and 2.6%, a significant improvement over the current state-of-the-art PE of 0.5% in solar fuel production. The project focuses on enhancing the scientific basis and export potential of the European solar fuel production sector. Collaborations with industrial, societal stakeholders, and partners in Africa aim to facilitate global development and export of new solar fuel production technologies. In summary, SUN-PERFORM aims to develop disruptive solar fuel technology for more sustainable and secure global fuel production.