Science AMA Series: Hi Reddit, I’m Wilson Smith, an Associate Professor
of Chemical Engineering at TU Delft in the Netherlands. My group studies
the conversion of sunlight, water, and CO2 into chemicals and fuels,
AMA!
Abstract
Hi reddit! I’m Wilson Smith, an Associate Professor in the Department of
Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the
Netherlands, studying solar energy. My team researches various ways to
convert solar energy into electricity and chemical fuels using only
water and CO2 as the raw materials. These processes try to replicate
what nature has done for over a billion years in photosynthesis, and
thus this process is sometimes called ‘artificial photosynthesis’.
However, plants have generally very low efficiencies
(~1%), so we try to find ways to beat nature using only
cheap and abundant materials. Recently, we were able to achieve an
efficiency of 12.7%, but still have our work cut out for us. Our
ultimate goal is to design systems and devices that can help contribute
to the global transition to a renewable energy society that is
sustainable and clean. You can catch up with our work on our group
website (www.smithsolarlab.com), or follow our updates on twitter
(@smithsolarlab). Outside of r/Science, I’ve been known to lurk in
r/Phish and r/ASOIAF, and went to high school with Jean-Ralphio from
Parks and Rec. I’ll be here as long as it takes to answer your questions
about solar fuels, sustainable energy technologies, and what its like to
set up a research lab (and life) in Europe as an American. Lets get this
going reddit, ask me anything! I’ll be back at 1 pm EST (10 am PST, 6 pm
UTC) to answer your questions, ask me anything!