About the project

In view of the urgent need to mitigate the environmental effects caused by the large amounts of CO2 released into the atmosphere, alternative strategies for energy production using renewable sources (water, wind, biomass, sunlight) have been deployed. Green hydrogen (H2) is an alternative to fossil fuels due to its clean and high-energy-density combustion, but is still limited by the low efficiency of production and high cost. To respond to these limitations, BioH2Gen proposes an alternative strategy for green H2 production through biophotovoltaic (BPV) devices, taking advantage of photosynthetic microorganisms to generate H2 through sunlight capture. More specifically, this project proposes the development of new nanostructured photoelectrodes based on flexible polymeric scaffolds prepared by electrospinning modified with semiconducting conjugated polymers, aiming at the construction of BPV devices through the interfacing with photosynthetic microbes (biophotoanode) and hydrogenase (biophotocathode). BioH2Gen addresses recent progress in the field and tackles this topic by deploying a multidisciplinary approach to develop an innovative solar-powered H2 production platform. The structure, charge transfer kinetics, and band-gap design of new flexible photoelectrodes will improve biotic-abiotic interactions for charge transfer. Finally, a tandem BPV assembly and its incorporation into a photoelectrochemical cell architecture will be carried out, aiming at high solar-to-hydrogen efficiencies. The successful implementation of the research methodology will culminate in a sustainable alternative in BPV device development due to the lightweight, low-cost, and low-environmental impact of the materials employed in their construction.