Kesterite based Photoelectrodes for Water and Nitrogen Reduction - KESPER

Project summary

Facing a period of climate emergency and energy crisis, Europe needs to rethink the energy market and the industry with innovative solutions based on renewable sources. KESPER adopts a disruptive approach by tackling simultaneously two of the most critical emerging paradigms: hydrogen and ammonia production. We propose a technology based on light concentrated photoelectrochemical processes that use a novel class of kesterite functional materials, along with tailored surfaces, coatings, and interfaces, resulting in low-cost, earth-abundant, easily recyclable, photoelectrodes, suitable for both H2 evolution and N2 reduction. Our final demonstrator will be developed with scalable techniques, following a life-cycle thinking, without requiring critical or toxic materials, and being capable of producing green-H2 at 19 gH2 h-1m-2 with a production cost of 2.5-5 €/kgH2 and with emissions of 0.5 kgCO2/kgH2, while demonstrating a Faradaic efficiency for N2 reduction of, at least, 50 %.