Science in the Triangle

North Carolina’s Research Triangle missed out on the U.S. Department of Energy’s $122 million to establish the nation’s solar fuels innovation hub – the prize went to the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, headed by the California Institute of Technology.

But that isn’t stopping research here to tap the sun and make liquid fuel the East Coast way.

Experts in chemistry, electrical engineering, material sciences and nanotechnology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, N.C. State University and RTI International will be working together for the first time at the newly formed Research Triangle Solar Fuels Institute.

Jim Trainham, the institute’s executive director, has an annual budget of about $2 million to sustain the research effort, which will focus on the semiconductor panels tasked with splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen with the help of solar energy.

Solar fuel production the East Coast way.

But Trainham also foresees collaboration between researchers at the Research Triangle Solar Fuels Institute and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, particularly in scaling up any solar fuels production methods and designing production plants.

Trainham also talked about the challenges the researchers are facing. Watch the Q&A with Science in the Triangle: