An appealing photo-powered multi-functional energy system for the poly-generation of hydrogen and electricity

Abstract

This paper focuses on a photo-powered poly-generation system (PPS) that is powered by the photocatalytic oxidation of organic substrate to produce hydrogen energy and electrical energy synchronously. This particular device runs entirely on light energy and chemical energy of substrate without external voltage. The performance measurements and optimization experiments are all investigated by using the low concentration of pure ethanol (EtOH) solution. Compared with the conventional submerged reactor for the photogeneration of hydrogen, the hydrogen and the electric current obtained in the constructed PPS are all relatively stable in experimental period and the numerical values detected are many times higher than that of the former by using various simulated ethanol waste liquid. When using Chinese rice wine as substrate at the same ethanol content level (i.e., 0.1 mol L−1), the production of hydrogen is close to that of the pure ethanol solution in the constructed PPS, but no hydrogen is detected in the conventional submerged reactor. These results demonstrate that the constructed PPS could effectively utilize light energy and perform good capability in poly-generation of hydrogen and electricity.