Photon waves. (Wiki Commons)

The search for clean energy technologies is sparking a renewed effort to create fuels from sunlight-driven chemical reactions. Solar fuel technologies exist today but chemists across the nation are trying to figure out how to increase the efficiency of the reactions and create the next generation of photovoltaics.

About 100 faculty, students and visiting scientists gathered at the Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campus on Thursday to discuss advances in solar fuels research.

The event, organized by the Solar Energy Research Center, drew speakers from Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. SERC itself is a consortium of UNC-CH, Duke, N.C. State University, N.C. Central University with RTI in Research Triangle Park.

UNC chemistry professor Tom Meyer, who is also the SERC director, said the group is a great example of the “new way of doing science” and bringing university research into collaboration with industry. Thursday’s gathering kicked off SERC’s second annual solar energy fuels conference, “Solar Fuels and Energy Storage: The Unmet Needs.”

Thursday and Friday were highly technical talks describing chemical mechanisms and applications that are advancing the field of solar-driven chemical energy. A public outreach component of the conference will take place 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. Friday at UNC’s Friday Center. At the outreach event, Meyer and several other speakers will talk with interested members of the public about the future, and the challenges, of creating solar-driven chemical fuels for applications in transportation and industrial-scaled energy distribution.

During the technical talks on Thursday, Gerald Meyer of Johns Hopkins University presented work detailing advances in molecular excited states showing light-induced electron transfers between molecules. In one example, he described a light-driven bonding reaction between iodide atoms and said the work could be a model for light-driven bonding reactions involving oxygen. Researchers like Meyer are experimenting with designing molecules that can be attached to a titanium dioxide substrate in order to create a reaction that will siphon off electrons after a photon of light strikes the material. Called dye-sensitive solar cells, this approach is proven to work but scientists are wrestling with creating a designer organic molecule that will yield higher efficiencies.

John Miller of JME, Inc. spoke about the future of bulk energy storage, citing research into how to increase the storage capabilities of electrochemical capacitors. He noted that maximum storage ability in these devices had increased “nine orders of magnitude” in his lifetime. The best capacitors consist of an asymmetrical electrodes placed in an electrolyte solution. The surface area of the electrodes is the limiting factor to increasing levels of energy storage, he said. The asymmetrical systems have disproportionately long discharge capabilities relative to their charging time, he said. The capacitors could be used in the future to store energy produced from utilities during non-peak hours at night, then be discharged into the electrical grid during peak hours – contributing to regularizing energy production. Currently, the largest units can discharge 20 watt hours per kilogram over a five-hour period.

Héctor Abruña, from Cornell University, spoke about electrocatalytic fuel cells and new applications in spectroscopsy to characterize the interface of nanoparticle reactions. He focused on describing the crystal structure of “ordered intermetallics” such as nanoparticle blends between platinum and lead or platinum and ruthenium, and how to quantify the electrochemical performance of these materials using scanning transmission electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. He described a new application in imaging where his lab rotated the imaging device around an ordered intermetallic group of nanoparticles to better understand how they were reacting in three-dimensions and over time.

There were many other talks, and the full listing can be found here.

Tom Meyer, a chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is one of them.

Talking to a group of science communicators Thursday in Research Triangle Park, Meyer (photo at left) said he didn’t think cold fusion was possible. But he pointed out that other innovate ways to generate tomorrow’s energy, including fuels made from sunlight, geothermal energy and hydrogen/oxigen fuel cells have their own challenges.

“A lot of this is based on promises,” Meyer said in his presentation at Sigma Xi, an international research society that has its administrative offices in RTP. “This is high-risk, high-reward research.”

Meyer heads the UNC solar fuels research center, established this year with the help of a $17.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. About 20 scientists from UNC, the University of Florida and N.C. State, N.C. Central and Duke universities work at the center to convert solar energy into chemical fuels.

As a former associate laboratory director at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Meyer is also familiar with nuclear energy, including the pursuit of cold fusion. He used to pay for cold fusion experiments, he said.

Scientists across the U.S. have tried their hands at alternative energy sources for decades. But in 2006, petroleum remained the primary source for energy in the U.S., according to figures by the National Academy of Science. Add gas and coal to the oil, and hydrocarbons – the source of global warming when burned – represent nearly 85 percent of the U.S. sources of energy.

So are there other, more environmentally friendly energy sources available, especially considering that energy consumption is projected to rise nearly tenfold over the course of the century?

Meyer offered suggestions and caveats:

• The U.S. Department of Energy is considering reviving a research program to generate synthetic fuel from coal gasification. The U.S. has the largest coal deposits of any country, but funding for the coal gasification program was stopped last year with about $900 million in cost overrruns.
• Research to generate electricity with fuel cells that combine hydrogen and oxygen is significantly hampered by problems with fuel cell parts and storage.
• Energy from renewable sources, such as wind and biomass, cannot be made in sufficient quantities to replace hydrocarbon fuels.
• Organic photovoltaics, which uses materials similar to Saran wrap to turn sunlight into electricity, is inexpensive. The materials are thin and could easily be turned into shingles and paint, but scientists continue to struggle with controlling and speeding up the transformation.
• Energy from sunlight also raises questions about storage, because on average useful sunlight is only available six hours per day. Producing chemicals through arteficial photosynthesis and then burning the chemicals is one possible solution, because chemicals are easier to store than electricity.

To focus research activities, a public debate similar to the one on health care is needed, Meyer said. But to fulfill the world’s rising energy demands, “you’re going to have many energy sources, use them all,” he said.

And don’t ask him about the cost of new energy sources and how they will compete with cheaper   hydrocarbon fuels.

“Markets do not work, the new technologies won’t pay off for years,” he said. But “if you do not invest (in them) know, you’re going to buy everything in China in 10 years.”

For podcasts of the Sigma Xi speaker series go here.

Could Tranzyme be the first U.S. biotech IPO in 2009?

Tranzyme Pharma is one of dozens of drug development companies in North Carolina’s Research Triangle area, a biotech hot spot that is ranked third in the nation by number of companies. The Durham company has diligently advanced therapies based on a hormone that was discovered a decade ago, a technology  also used by two rivals. Now, Tranzyme’s Board of Directors has to decide how to pay for the final development step and get its drugs to market: Go public, sell the company or go back to its investors hat in hand one more time.

Part 1: Ghrelin – a new hormone is found.

Part 2: Getting a ghrelin drug to market.

Part 3: Next – a crucial decision.

Duke plans to spend $700 million on new cancer center

Duke University Health System announced plans to build a seven-story cancer center and an eight-story medicine pavillion.

Duke’s expansion is projected to cost $700 million and be completed within four years. During construction, about 1,500 jobs will be created, about 1,000 when the project is finished.

This will be the second cancer center going up on a university campus in the Triangle.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill just finished a $200 million cancer hospital and opened it to patients mid-August.

GSK diet pill under scutiny

The Food and Drug Administration is looking into the possibility that a diet pill could cause serious liver injuries.

Orlistat, which GlaxoSmithKline markets as Alli and Roche as Xenical, is linked to 32 adverse event reports the FDA has received from 1999 to 2008. All of the cases occurred outside the U.S.

In other company news:

• Alcatel-Lucent lays off 12 percent of its Triangle work force.
• Affiliated Computer Services plans to fill 465 jobs at a Raleigh call center.
• BDSI wins a 2-year patent extension for its Onsolis technology.
• Durham-based Carolina Solar Energy brings on line a five-acre solar farm in Person County that feeds electricity into Progress Energy’s power grid.