Scientists switch on the world’s largest ‘artificial sun’

• German scientists created an array consisting of 149 industrial-grade film projector spotlights, in the hope that intense light sources can be used to generate climate-friendly fuel. This array is also known by the name of “the world’s largest artificial sun”.

About experiment:

• The Synlight experiment in Jülich, near Cologne, produces light about 10,000 times the intensity of natural sunlight on Earth.
• All the lamps can concentrate light on a single spot measuring 20 x 20cm, and can generate temperatures of around 3,500°C.
• The aim of the experiment is to come up with the optimal setup for concentrating natural sunlight to power a reaction to produce hydrogen fuel, as much of the Sun’s energy remains untapped.
• Solar power stations that use mirrors to focus sunlight onto water are already well established. These work by harnessing heat from the sun to produce steam that turns turbines and generates electricity.
• The Synlight experiment is investigating the possibility that a similar setup could be used to power a reaction to extract hydrogen from water vapour, which could then be used as a fuel source for aeroplanes and cars.
• Synlight currently uses a vast amount of energy – four hours of operation consumes as much electricity as a four-person household in a year – but scientists hope that in the future natural sunlight could be used to produce hydrogen in a carbon-neutral way.
• In the future, the facility may be used to test the durability of space travel parts when blasted by solar radiation.

Analysis:

• Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, but free, uncombined hydrogen gas is relatively rare on earth. One way to manufacture hydrogen is to split water into its two components – the other being oxygen – using electricity in a process called electrolysis. Researchers hope to bypass the electricity stage by tapping into the enormous amount of energy that reaches Earth in the form of light from the sun.
• Many consider hydrogen to be the fuel of the future because it produces no carbon emissions when burned, meaning it does not add to global warming.
• The goal of this experiment is to eventually use actual sunlight rather than the artificial light produced at the Juelich experiment, which cost 3.5 million euros (£3 million) to build and requires as much electricity in four hours as a four-person household would use in a year.

By: Vishal