I haven't really had time to do any #solarpunkactionweekstuff, sadly, because I'm hella busy right now.
Though admittedly, the stuff I'm busy with is artificial photosynthesis – looking for molecules which can use sunlight to capture CO2 and store energy while alleviating the effects of global warming.
...which... probably?... counts...?
By the way, feel free to ask me more about this stuff, if you're curious. I'm always happy to share knowledge.
@InvaderXan I would love to know more! What processes are you looking at? How is the work progressing? How do you see the technology being applied? Got any papers you're able to share? How long have you been at it?
This would probably be super awesome for space stations, actual plants are tricky in microgravity and the carbon scrubbers they have now need new filters shipping up every so often...
@RedFuture
So...
* The basic process involves charge separation and flow of electrons, a lot like in photosynthesis. Plants use this to split water. I'm hoping to use it to directly split carbon dioxide, if that's even possible.
* It's progressing steadily, but slower than I'd like. There are a lot of people working on carbon sequestration. Finding something that works well is easier said than done. Being a theorist, I hope to help narrow things down.
* The ultimate goal is to apply it on a large scale. Pulling CO2 from the air gives a source of hydrocarbons which doesn't use fossil sources. This could either be used as carbon-neutral fuel (short term) or be used for permanent removal of CO2 from the atmosphere (longer term).
* Here's a summary from a 2017 conference, which should be open source: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2017/fd/c7fd00133a#!divAbstract
* Not long. A few months. I hope I can get more funding for next year...
@RedFuture
And space stations... I don't see why this kind of thing can't work together with plants. NASA have been studying how to grow things in orbit for decades, after all. The only difficulty is growing enough of them, so an artificial system could help out where required.