The company is learning from nature, taking a cue from how plants use the sun’s energy to produce sugar and store ‘fuel’
The Tata group is investing millions of dollars in Sun Catalytix — an energy storage and renewable fuels company — founded by an Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor, Daniel Nocera. The aim is to introduce a low-cost solar contraption to power the homes of the poor, primarily in developing countries like India, by day or by night.
The Tata group is well-known for its bias towards low-cost innovations like the ‘Nano’ car and ‘Swach’ (which means ‘clean’ in Hindi) water filter — which primarily target lower-income groups.
Sun Catalytix’s prototype can split hydrogen from “any source of water — be it river water, sea water or even human waste water”. Once the water molecules are split into hydrogen and oxygen, the hydrogen can power fuel cells. Built at a cost of around $20 (around Rs 920 at today’s rates), it is expected to hit the market in 18 months. “We have the capability to power a household with just two bottles of water from any source,” claims Prof Nocera who is also Director of MIT’s Solar Revolutions Project and the ENI Solar Frontiers Center.
The reasoning is simple. Solar power, till now, has been a daytime-only energy source. But storing extra solar energy for use when the sun sets, is expensive and inefficient. Sun Catalytix also believes “batteries have a limitation when it comes to storing electrical energy”. The company’s prototype, hence, has taken a cue from nature — the process of photosynthesis whereby plants and bacteria use energy from sunlight to produce sugar, and which cellular respiration converts into Adenosine Tri-Phosphate or ATP which is the ‘fuel’ used by all living things.
It was around two years back that Prof Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, had announced details of the experiment. They have since refined it further. “By eliminating expensive precious metals and substantially reducing costs, our technology promises to enable the conversion of electrical, solar or wind energy to storable energy at low costs,” says Prof Nocera. However, there were many challenges when copying nature. Catalysts, for instance, split water but none of them could heal in real-time after corroding (unlike plants which know how the secret of ‘self-healing’), he explains.
So Nocera and Kanan created a new catalyst which consists of cobalt metal (plants use manganese instead), phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity — whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source — runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced. Combined with another catalyst (initally platinum but now a ternary allow which is more efficient and very resistant to corrosion) that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water-splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.
The contraption, according to Prof Nocera, has advantages over current electrolysers — which split water with electricity and are often used for industrial purposes — but are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive (around $12,000 per KW) “and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates”.
Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons (promoter of Tata group companies), is understood to be taking personal interest in the project while simultaneously providing personnel from his group companies to make this project successful. The Tata group, incidentally, also has a joint venture called Tata BP Solar with BP Solar, and is one of the largest solar companies in Asia. Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover (now a Tata company), is on the board of Sun Catalytix. While the Tata group has officially pumped in $9.5 million in the company, people with knowledge of the development say “the investment is much more and Ratan Tata is a co-owner”. Other investors include Polaris Venture Partners. Amir Nashat is the acting CEO of Sun Catalytix.
With 300 sunny days in India, the market potential is immense. Moreover, in July 2009, the country unveiled a $19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar power by 2020 wherein solar-powered equipment and applications would be mandatory in all government buildings including hospitals and hotels. Further, in the 2010-11 budge, the Indian government had announced an allocation of $227 million towards the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and the establishment of a Clean Energy Fund.
Currently, though, solar power is much more expensive than power generated by other sources of energy like wind, coal and water. The government, therefore, has to subsidise solar power.
Prof Nocera, however, has a different take on the subject. He says: “I disagree that solar is too expensive. Rather, coal is too cheap. I wish people understand this”. He estimates that the world will need around 30 trillion watts (TW) of power by 2050. It currently generates around 14 TW. “By 2050, wind energy can generate only around 2.4 TW; and even we build one nuclear power plant every 1.5 days forever, we will be able to generate just 8 TW. Similar is the case with Biomass (5-7 TW), hydroelectric (4.6 TW) and geothermal (12TW),” says Prof Nocera, adding: “It’s only with the help of the Sun that we will be able to generate a staggering 800 TW. So while we may continue with other forms of energy, solar power is the way to go.”
Meanwhile, other companies like US-based Amyris, too, are developing genetic-engineering technologies that change the way microbes process sugar, turning them into “biorefineries” that could provide alternatives to products derived from petroleum.
