Using Sunshine to Clean Up

Project
Sunshine.
Using Sunshine to Clean Up
Professor Anthony J Ryan OBE
Pro Vice Chancellor – Faculty of Science
Project
Sunshine.
Our planet is very small!
Project
Sunshine.
We are less than a millionth of the
mass of the stu! living on the planet
But we are having an inordinate
e!ect!
The anthropocene period
Project
Sunshine.
Why Project Sunshine?
•  The world is in crisis
•  too many people, not enough energy or food,
accelerating environmental destruction, unsustainable
economic growth, evidence of climate change
•  She!eld is strong in research relating to the sun
•  overlapping expertise in physics, chemistry, biology
and mathematics.
•  She!eld is also strong in related engineering,
sociological and economic aspects.
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© The University of She!eld
Project
Sunshine.
Evolutionary time line
Reducing
Atmosphere
SINCE THE
FORMATION
OF THE
EARTH
Iron ore was laid down
Oxidising
Atmosphere
Project
Sunshine.
Sunshine, water, oxygen and CO2
feed all life on earth
plants & algae
everything else
Project
Sunshine.
Less than a million years ago……..
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© The University of She!eld
Project
Sunshine.
But getting from the
early humans
here…..
…..to the Victorians
was but a blink of
the evolutionary eye.
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© The University of She!eld
But something had
changed!
Project
Sunshine.
400 years ago we
still lived on
sunshine!
•  < 1 billion people
•  The majority had a subsistence diet
and lived at the limit of food supply
•  Population ebbed and flowed
•  Europe was entering the industrial
revolution
•  Air quality in the cities was not a
problem – even if they didn’t smell
too good
No coal or oil or gas
Project
Sunshine.
And there were still less than a billion
people only 2 hundred years ago
Project
Sunshine.
An early historical perspective
•  Since the advent of mankind
society ran an energy
current account
•  Stone, Bronze & Iron ages
•  First hunter gatherers
•  Then agrarian societies
•  Energy to drive the emerging
economy came from the sun
and was used within a lifetime
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© The University of She!eld
Project
Sunshine.
Then a concentrated form of
energy was discovered
underground
•  This energy is buried sunshine
•  Stored through photosynthesis
•  Broke the link between the sun
and economic development
•  Allowed the industrial revolution
to develop apace
Fossilised sunshine
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© The University of She!eld
Project
Sunshine.
Now people
are squeezing
the Earth’s
resources
•  6 billion people
•  1 billion crazy consumers
•  3 billion trying to catch up
•  20 million years of CO2
released very year
•  Oil & gas running out
•  Air quality getting worse
Project
Sunshine.
The oil-powered economy and
its fertilised agronomy
Millennia of
slow
population
growth
Doubling Doubling Doubling
every
in 150
in 25
1000
years
years
years
•  Population growth is limited by
food production
•  Coal and oil grew the economy
•  Artificial fertilizer in 1908 from
Haber-Bosch process
•  Population started to exploded
both in the cities and on the land
•  The green revolution of the
1950s
Project
Sunshine.
People eat fossilised sunshine!
Project
Sunshine.
The global food-energy cycle
Needs to be powered by the Sun!
Project
Sunshine.
Research Portfolio
Solar Physics
Food Security
Photovoltaics
Global change
Photosynthesis
Energy technologies
Policy & economics
Project
Sunshine.
Sunshine can clean up the streets
Project
Sunshine.
Stationary Application Camden
Project
Sunshine.
Photocatalysis
Can it be used on clothing ?
Mitigating pollution – NOx & VOC
Project
Sunshine.
Clothing as a catalyst for……..
•  Environmental clean-up?
•  10 million Londoners
•  2 kg of fabric per person
area
"dl
4
4
2
%1
=
=
=
=
40m
kg
mass " d 2 l# d# 100 µm $ 1000 kg m-3
4
!
800 million m2 of catalyst support wandering around the
urban environment.
© The University of Sheffield
Project
Sunshine.
Model – Erin O’Connor
CatClo - the movie
Dress by Helen Storey
Project
Sunshine.
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© The University of She!eld
Project
Sunshine.
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© The University of She!eld
Project
Sunshine.
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© The University of She!eld
Project
Sunshine.
Application to Denim
•  Reasons to consider this?
More pairs of jeans than people in the
world
•  E"ective surface area in London alone
from # the population in jeans
•  100 million m2
•  100 km2 = an awful lot of buildings!
Project
Sunshine.
A Field of Jeans
Project
Sunshine.
A Field of Jeans
Project
Sunshine.
A Field of Jeans
Project
Sunshine.
NOx results for
cristalACTIV colloid on
denim
•  Surface area available for colloid support
is much higher
•  Tests on three di"erent colours of denim
•  Di"erent loadings of catalyst
•  0.6 L /min flow of gas
Projectfor NO ) at 50%RH in UV Light of PCX-S7 on Jeans - Lablight Exposure Mar 2011
% NO Reduction(corrected
Sunshine. 2
initial
29 days
60 days
125 days
190 days
days
100.0
% NO Reduction (corrected for NO2)
80.0
CristalACTIV colloid on denim.
60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
Black
blank
Black 1
layer
Black 2
layers
Black 3
layers
Black 4
layers
Dark Blue Dark Blue
blank
1 layer
Dark
Blue2
layers
Dark Blue Dark Blue Light Blue Light Blue
3 layers 4 layers
blank
1 layer
Light
Blue2
layers
Light Blue Light Blue
3 layers 4 layers
Project
% NO Reduction(corrected
for NO2) at 50%RH in FL Light of PCX-S7 on Jeans - Natural Exposure Mar 2011
Sunshine.
initial
29 days
60 days
125 days
100.0
% NO Reduction (corrected for NO2)
80.0
60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
Back blank Black 1
layer
Black 2
layers
Black 3
layers
Black 4
layers
Dark Blue Dark Blue Dark Blue2 Dark Blue Dark Blue Light Blue Light Blue
blank
1 layer
layers
3 layers
4 layers
blank
1 layer
32
Light
Blue2
layers
Light Blue Light Blue
3 layers
4 layers
Project
Sunshine.
How much NOx can 1 kg of
CatClo denim fabric remove ?
•  A conservative estimate is 10 g per day
•  3 g of TiO2 per m2 of denim
•  Best in sunlight but works in FL
•  Takes out > 50% which is replenished by
movement
Project
Sunshine.
‘Field of Jeans’ denim sample
Uncoated denim
SEM images
Sol coated denim
AN15665
Project
Sunshine.
SEM cross section
Denim fibres
Sol coating
Epoxy resin
(used for sample embedding)
Pseudo-coloured AN15665
Project
Sunshine.
Calculation for She"eld
•  9,000 Tonnes of NOx per year
•  Compliant 8,000 tonnes/ year (40 µg/m3)
•  Removal of 3 tonnes per day
•  500 g in weight ~ 20 m2 of paint
•  10 g / person / day
•  Needs 1/3 million people
Project
Sunshine.
Paints for MRSA, Sta! A, E coli
•  Data From Paint Research Association
•  In the light, UV and FL
•  Good for > 99% SA, MRSA, E-Coli
Project
Sunshine.
The destruction of bacteria by
CristalACTIV
•  PCX-S7 on other surfaces
•  Stainless steel demonstrated overall good photocatalytic activity
against MRSA. Equivalent to 99.0-99.9 % kill
•  Glass demonstrated excellent antibacterial activity against MRSA.
Equivalent to >99.9 % kill$$$$$$$$$$$
•  Glass demonstrated overall excellent photocatalytic antibacterial
activity against Staphylococcus aureus$ Equivalent to >99.9 % kill
Project
Sunshine.
Photocatalysis – Can it be
e!ectively used on clothing ?
•  Depollution
•  NOx
•  VOC
•  Antibacterial
•  MRSA
•  SA
•  E coli
Project
Sunshine.
Conclusions
•  Camden trial show great e"ect on air
quality in London
•  Todays’ data on paint, ceramics, steel,
aluminium show architecture works
•  But people in clothes would be better
•  Needs an altruistic laundry product
Project
Sunshine.
To
Discover
And
Understand.
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© The University of She!eld