It is a known fact that in the year 2015, 193 member countries of the United Nations (UN) have formulated seventeen (17) sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be achieved by the end of the year 2030. Given the progress made so far, it is most unlikely that any of these SDGs can be achieved before the deadline. Our society has survived so far just because of the readymade availability of stored solar energy in the form of fossil fuels, which are nothing but the solar energy stored by plant leaves by using CO2 and water as energy storage materials in the form of food materials and biomass to feed human beings and animals that got eventually converted into fossil fuels. Since, fossil fuel cannot sustain our civilization economic growth, and given the solar energy is the best renewable energy resource as on today, a lot of research has been carried out so far to harvest the sunlight to meet the energy needs of the society without any back-up from fossil fuels by following various routes. However, no industrial process has been developed so far for such a purpose. A closer look into the literature suggest that the kind of sunlight we receive at the earth surface, and the semiconducting materials developed or identified so far by our society are responsible for not able to develop any commercial process so far for harvest solar energy to meet the energy needs of the society while practicing at industry with economic viability. All reasons for not able to achieve this goal, and how the solar energy can be harvested to meet all the energy needs without any back-up from fossil fuels has been presented and discussed along this book and briefly mentioned about it in this introduction part of the book. According to Department of Energy (DoE), USA, it is a compulsory to harvest sunlight at a minimum efficiency of 10% to practice it at industry with economic viability. To achieve, this goal, the photoelectrochemical, photochemical or photocatalytic processes cannot be employed for the reasons mentioned in above-paragraph. However, this target can be achieved by performing the solar energy harvesting process in three steps. In the first step, sunlight has to be converted into electricity by using any of the safe solar panels, such as, hybrid solar panels of SLAPE (semiconductor and liquid assisted photothermal effect) and SPVC (silicon photovoltaic cell) that do not contribute to global warming by releasing the heat energy generated by them out of sunlight into the atmosphere. Once, the electricity is generated from sunlight that has to be used to reduce CO2 gas into CO, and to split water into H2 and O2 gases. Once the syngas (H2 + CO) is generated from water and CO2, respectively, using electricity derived from sunlight, it can be converted into methanol, which in turn can be converted into gasoline (i.e., petrol) by following MTG (methanol-to-gasoline) process or into diesel. Once this process is developed successfully, it can consume all the CO2 gas generated today as a waste across the globe at all the major outlets. This is the only way by which the problems of the CO2 associated global warming, climate change and the social cost of carbon can be solved. When this process is performed at an efficiency of 10%, then it is referred to as “Practicable Artificial Photosynthesis (PAP)” process. As on today, it is the only option our society has to make energy, environment, economy and life sustainable on our only habitable planet, Earth. Furthermore, it is the only way that allows achieving the UN SDG-1 (no poverty), SDG-2 (no hunger), SDG-7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG-8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG-10 (reduced inequalities), SDG-11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG-13 (climate action) and SDG-14 (life below water). The details and importance of PAP process has been described in this introduction chapter of the book.

Preface

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发表日期：

2025年

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Ibram Ganesh

摘要

It is a known fact that in the year 2015, 193 member countries of the United Nations (UN) have formulated seventeen (17) sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be achieved by the end of the year 2030. Given the progress made so far, it is most unlikely that any of these SDGs can be achieved before the deadline. Our society has survived so far just because of the readymade availability of stored solar energy in the form of fossil fuels, which are nothing but the solar energy stored by plant leaves by using CO2 and water as energy storage materials in the form of food materials and biomass to feed human beings and animals that got eventually converted into fossil fuels. Since, fossil fuel cannot sustain our civilization economic growth, and given the solar energy is the best renewable energy resource as on today, a lot of research has been carried out so far to harvest the sunlight to meet the energy needs of the society without any back-up from fossil fuels by following various routes. However, no industrial process has been developed so far for such a purpose. A closer look into the literature suggest that the kind of sunlight we receive at the earth surface, and the semiconducting materials developed or identified so far by our society are responsible for not able to develop any commercial process so far for harvest solar energy to meet the energy needs of the society while practicing at industry with economic viability. All reasons for not able to achieve this goal, and how the solar energy can be harvested to meet all the energy needs without any back-up from fossil fuels has been presented and discussed along this book and briefly mentioned about it in this introduction part of the book. According to Department of Energy (DoE), USA, it is a compulsory to harvest sunlight at a minimum efficiency of 10% to practice it at industry with economic viability. To achieve, this goal, the photoelectrochemical, photochemical or photocatalytic processes cannot be employed for the reasons mentioned in above-paragraph. However, this target can be achieved by performing the solar energy harvesting process in three steps. In the first step, sunlight has to be converted into electricity by using any of the safe solar panels, such as, hybrid solar panels of SLAPE (semiconductor and liquid assisted photothermal effect) and SPVC (silicon photovoltaic cell) that do not contribute to global warming by releasing the heat energy generated by them out of sunlight into the atmosphere. Once, the electricity is generated from sunlight that has to be used to reduce CO2 gas into CO, and to split water into H2 and O2 gases. Once the syngas (H2 + CO) is generated from water and CO2, respectively, using electricity derived from sunlight, it can be converted into methanol, which in turn can be converted into gasoline (i.e., petrol) by following MTG (methanol-to-gasoline) process or into diesel. Once this process is developed successfully, it can consume all the CO2 gas generated today as a waste across the globe at all the major outlets. This is the only way by which the problems of the CO2 associated global warming, climate change and the social cost of carbon can be solved. When this process is performed at an efficiency of 10%, then it is referred to as “Practicable Artificial Photosynthesis (PAP)” process. As on today, it is the only option our society has to make energy, environment, economy and life sustainable on our only habitable planet, Earth. Furthermore, it is the only way that allows achieving the UN SDG-1 (no poverty), SDG-2 (no hunger), SDG-7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG-8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG-10 (reduced inequalities), SDG-11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG-13 (climate action) and SDG-14 (life below water). The details and importance of PAP process has been described in this introduction chapter of the book.