Max-Planck-Institut für chemische Energiekonversion

The sun and wind provide more than enough clean energy to meet humanity's needs - but unfortunately not always where and when it is needed and often not in a usable form. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion are working on finding ways to store this energy in chemical compounds. They are researching how energy can be efficiently converted into storable and usable forms and are primarily looking for suitable catalysts for the necessary chemical reactions. To this end, the researchers are taking plants as a model, which use the energy of light to directly produce sugar. However, they also want to improve techniques such as the electrolysis of water, which can be used to store surplus electrical energy.