NextGen energy: German scientists testing world’s largest ‘artificial sun’ to make hydrogen fuel

The device called Synlight, which they believe could pave the way toward creating hydrogen to use as a green fuel, is being developed at the German Aerospace Center near Cologne, Germany.

Image credit: German Aerospace Center (DLR)

New Delhi: German scientists are testing a new device what they call as the world's largest 'artificial sun' in an attempt to make hydrogen fuel, an emissions-free alternative fuel that can be produced from diverse domestic energy sources.

The device called Synlight, which they believe could pave the way toward creating hydrogen to use as a green fuel, is being developed at the German Aerospace Center in Juelich near Cologne, Germany.

The artificial light, which has been created from 149 powerful short-arc lamps, emits light about 10,000 times stronger than typical sunlight.

According to the researchers, the aim of the experiment is to find novel ways of making solar fuels, including hydrogen, which is believed as an important renewable energy source in the future.

“The test aims to find new ways to create hydrogen to fuel vehicles such as cars and planes,” explained Bernhard Hoffschmidt, the director of the Center’s Institute for Solar Research.

“We’re essentially bringing the sun to the Earth, by re-creating its radiation in a lab,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.

“We orientate all lamps to focus on one point, which can generate temperatures of over 3,000 degrees Celsius.”

Hoffschmidt said the operation produces water vapour that can be split into hydrogen and oxygen.

“The hydrogen created can then be used to power airplanes and cars (with) carbon-dioxide-free fuel,” he said.

Countries are under increasing pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and hope to use excess power generated by renewable sources such as wind or solar to create hydrogen from water through a process called electrolysis.

However, Synlight itself consumes a large amount of energy, Hoffschmidt added.

“In four hours the system uses about as much electricity as a four-person household in a year. Our goal is to eventually use actual sunlight to make hydrogen, rather than artificial light.”

He also acknowledged there was “a long way to go” before the method could be scaled up for commercial use, which he said would require billions of tonnes of hydrogen.

“I think commercial use will only really be possible when societies and governments realise that we cannot burn any more fossil fuels,” Hoffschmidt said.

He added, however, that global events like recent UN climate talks in Morocco in November provided welcome momentum in the fight against climate change, and were a sign that “things are starting to change”.

Experts are of the view that renewable energies will be the mainstay of global power supply in the future.

(With Agency inputs)