Domestic biofuels are an attractive alternative to petroleum-based transportation fuels. Biofuels are typically produced from plant matter such as sugars oils and biomass. This plant matter is created by photosynthesis a process that converts solar energy into stored chemical energy in plants. However photosynthesis is an inefficient way to transfer energy from the sun to a plant and then to biofuel.
Georgia
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Technology
Background: While much of solar energy generation is focused on photovoltaics there is increasing attention on concentrating solar power systems which use focused solar light to heat thermal storage media. Often these media take the form of high-temperature oils or molten salts. Most thermal storage suffers from drawbacks in one or more of the following areas: cost availability minimum temperature maximum temperature or corrosion. Accordingly there is a need for thermal storage materials that are easy to obtain operate over wide temperatures and resist corrosion.