Solar-thermal catalytic CO2 splitting

Solar thermochemical fuel production (STFP) uses concentrated solar radiation as the source of high-temperature heat to drive high-temperature processes for the production of renewable solar fuels. This effectively converts sunlight directly to chemical fuels, for example CO2 → CO for subsequent conversion to fuels, H2O → H2, or synthesis gas (syngas, a CO/H2 mixture) to other liquid fuels. This is a potential method to store solar energy, transport it and utilise it on demand.1–3 The power/heat for this should be derived from concentrated solar power (CSP), using the rays of the sun focused to a small area to generate localised temperatures of up to 1600 °C, which are necessary to drive these thermochemical reactions.