PUBLICATIONS

Advanced Devices for Energy Conversion

Journals

Scientific Reports
년도 2019
학술지명 Scientific Reports
논문명 Multi-bandgap Solar Energy Conversion via Combination of Microalgal Photosynthesis and Spectrally Selective Photovoltaic Cell
게재권/집 9/12
수록페이지 18999
저자명 Changsoon Cho, Kibok Nam, Ga-Yeong Kim, Yeong Hwan Seo, Tae Gyu Hwang, Ji-Won Seo, Jae Pil Kim, Jong-In Han*, and Jung-Yong Lee*
Link 관련링크 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55358-6 1619회 연결

Abstract


Microalgal photosynthesis is a promising solar energy conversion process to produce high concentration biomass, which can be utilized in the various fields including bioenergy, food resources, and medicine. In this research, we study the optical design rule for microalgal cultivation systems, to efficiently utilize the solar energy and improve the photosynthesis efficiency. First, an organic luminescent dye of 3,6-Bis(4′-(diphenylamino)-1,1′-biphenyl-4-yl)-2,5-dihexyl-2,5-dihydropyrrolo3,4-c pyrrole -1,4-dione (D1) was coated on a photobioreactor (PBR) for microalgal cultivation. Unlike previous reports, there was no enhancement in the biomass productivities under artificial solar illuminations of 0.2 and 0.6 sun. We analyze the limitations and future design principles of the PBRs using photoluminescence under strong illumination. Second, as a multiple-bandgaps-scheme to maximize the conversion efficiency of solar energy, we propose a dual-energy generator that combines microalgal cultivation with spectrally selective photovoltaic cells (PVs). In the proposed system, the blue and green photons, of which high energy is not efficiently utilized in photosynthesis, are absorbed by a large-bandgap PV, generating electricity with a high open-circuit voltage (Voc) in reward for narrowing the absorption spectrum. Then, the unabsorbed red photons are guided into PBR and utilized for photosynthesis with high efficiency. Under an illumination of 7.2 kWh m−2 d−1, we experimentally verified that our dual-energy generator with C60-based PV can simultaneously produce 20.3 g m−2 d−1 of biomass and 220 Wh m−2 d−1 of electricity by utilizing multiple bandgaps in a single system.