Member Li Can: "Liquid sunlight" technology can help China achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals

Member Li Can: The "liquid sunshine" technology can help China achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality

BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- This year's government work report pointed out that it is necessary to do a solid job in carbon peaking and carbon neutrality; formulate an action plan for carbon emission peaking by 2030. In this regard, Li Can, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggested that the use of "liquid sunlight" technology can help China achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

Li Can has been committed to the field of new and renewable energy research for many years, and he submitted two proposals during the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year: "Green Hydrogen Energy and Liquid Sunlight Methanol: The Path to Complete the Carbon Neutrality Target" and "Complete the Carbon Neutrality Target, Implement the Carbon Emission Trading Of Liquid Sunlight Methanol and Other Policies", calling for the "liquid sunlight" technology as the basis to help China complete the "double carbon" goal as soon as possible.

Data show that in 2019, China's total carbon dioxide emissions accounted for 29% of the world's total, and the task of reducing emissions is very arduous. The trend of globalized stone energy resource depletion is emerging, and Chinese scientists began new explorations at the beginning of this century.

In 2001, Li Can took the lead in starting the research work of "artificial photosynthesis of solar fuels": the first step is to turn light into energy, which can currently be used in the form of photovoltaic power generation, the second step is to electrolyze water to hydrogen, and the third step is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide to make methanol.

After calculation, electrolysis of water to hydrogen per ton of hydrogen is equivalent to storing 33,000 kWh of electricity, converting electrical energy into chemical energy, which is the most effective chemical energy storage reaction; compared with coal and oil, carbon dioxide and hydrogen methanol fuel have the characteristics of clean combustion and low greenhouse gas emissions. If methanol is used instead of coal as fuel, emissions of PM2.5 will be reduced by more than 80% and nitrogen oxides by more than 90%.

The study lasted nearly 20 years. In January 2020, the "Liquid Sunshine" demonstration project was put into operation, and liquid methanol products were produced three hours after feeding. After evaluation by authoritative institutions, the organic content of methanol reached 99.5%, which also marked the first step in the industrialization of China's use of renewable energy to prepare liquid fuels.

This is one of the earliest attempts at the large-scale synthesis of direct solar fuels worldwide. If the project is operated at full capacity, it can produce 1,500 tons of methanol per year, consume 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide, and consume 15 million kWh of solar power. Experts estimate that China's current annual methanol production capacity is about 80 million tons, and if the solar fuel methanol synthesis route is used, it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by hundreds of millions of tons per year.

Li Can said that China's Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other regions have rich coal resources, while having rich advantages in renewable energy resources, the most suitable for the development of green hydrogen energy and liquid sunlight technology, these areas account for 2/3 of the land area, mainly distributed in the west. Compared with the eastern coastal areas, the economic development is relatively backward, the ability to absorb renewable energy in situ is limited, and the pressure of carbon neutrality is greater. The use of liquid sunlight methanol can solve the problem of large-scale energy storage of renewable energy and safely transport it to other areas such as the eastern coast. This will drive the economic development and industrial upgrading of the western region and help complete the carbon neutrality goal.

Li Can suggested that liquid sunlight technology can shoulder the heavy responsibility of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by hundreds of millions of tons, but it is still in the initial stage of large-scale application, and the cost is still relatively high, so it is necessary to implement the carbon emission trading right policy as soon as possible and promote the promotion and application of liquid solar methanol through carbon tax and carbon sink mechanism. (End)

Source: China News Network