Science B17¢H: Jet Fuel invented from solar technology

This is one of those "I just woke up moments", kids dropped off at daycare......I'm getting ready to start my day..... decide to bust out JUMPSTICK and give it a try (nothing will ever compare to STUMBLE UPON but this comes pretty dang close) to see what random articles they can offer me and well.....what's this!?

::LOOKS CLOSER AT TITLE:: .....Develops..... JET FUEL from SUNLIGHT!! WTF. So two things: Right off the jump 1. this app hooks me 2. JET FUEL from Sunlight? Friggin sweet! I F*c*ing LOVE science! So naturally I click it and herrrrrrrrrrrrre's what I discovered (You know the drill. Gotta click 'Continue Reading' to find out)

According to the CALTECH article on the subject it seems that one of their teams that's part of a Department of Energy 'Innovation Hub' known as  'LiSA' (aka the Liquid Sunlight Alliance) has developed some kind of "solar-thermal heating system" small scale and was able to demonstrate that it can successfully drive a type of reaction for jet fuel production. Now I'm not going to pretend to completely understand the process but I do know PHOTOSYNTHESIS so I'd assume the priciples parallel that some how. 

"Completely powered by solar energy, the so-called photothermocatalytic reactor incorporates a spectrally selective solar absorber to maximize the generation of solar-thermal heating." -Source: CALTECH.edu

"This device demonstrates that the heat generated by abundant solar energy can be used to directly drive catalytic processes, which has normally been done using electricity or fossil fuels," says Harry Atwater, the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and LiSA director."

Now I don't know about you but that is pretty dang cool. It is probably a very crude process but the important thing is that scientists have proven it can be done, which means innovation from here and efficiency tomorrow! I always get excited to hear about alternative energy because it is becoming a more viable and viable solution to many of modern life's qualms and quandaries.

In this system, a quartz window at the top allows light to illuminate the solar absorber; a vacuum layer helps minimize heat losses; and the solar absorber sits at the bottom, in direct contact with the chemical reactor. The selective solar absorber achieves a calculated maximum temperature of 249 degrees C under one sun illumination and 130 degrees C under ambient operating conditions (25 degrees C, 1 atm). -Source via CALTECH.EDU

For another article on this topic Click HERE. Source via INTERESTINGENGINEERING.COM

The paper itself has been published online Here in case you're interested. The lead author of the paper is Magel P. Su,