How to help invent the transition to a decarbonized world

How to help invent the transition to a decarbonized world – research work in concentrated solar. Lina Hockaday and colleagues at Stellenbosch University attending the 2017 SolarPACES Conference

Work in concentrated solar research is one rewarding way to help invent the transition to a decarbonized world

SolarPACES talks to concentrated solar energy researchers at various stages in their careers

In recent conversations with local climate protesters, I was surprised by how little these high school and university students knew about the kind of solar needed to decarbonize industrial processes with solar heat, even among students committed to creating a better world. Surveys of high school students have found similar results.

The students I spoke with knew about PV, but some had learned that today’s main career options are uninspiring door-to-door sales or rooftop installations. However, that’s just PV, which is already conquering the world for grid-scale electricity.

But concentrated solar is another story; there’s a lot of innovation in this field. This form of solar energy that directly utilizes the sun’s heat is just starting to make a difference in how we can replace coal or gas in the many ways we heat with fossil fuels, from food and mineral processing to district heating and even manufacturing entirely new solar fuels to replace diesel, gas-based hydrogen, and aircraft fuel.

Replacing such a wide range of fossil energy uses will change how everything is made in the future. And how that will work is still being invented.

So what are some ways to work in concentrated solar thermal?

A career in research – solar heat for industrial decarbonization

When I interviewed solar researcher Lina Hockaday in 2017, she told me she would love to devote the next 40 years to her research focus—applying concentrated solar energy to heat the manganese ores used to make steel.

At that time, she had been the Senior Engineer in Pyrometallurgy at South Africa’s Mintek and was doing her PhD on solar sintering of manganese ores at Stellenbosh University.

Hockaday is now in Western Australia, another mining and solar-rich region, where as Senior Engineer in Solar Pyrometallurgy she is creating Curtin University’s first research program advancing concentrated solar applications to decarbonize industrial heat as one of several Australian universities partnering with HILT CRC.

A career in concentrated solar research can either be through teaching or, as in Hockaday’s case, hands-on supervision at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the execution of research and project management of research projects. She collaborates with other universities, research institutes, and industries trying to decarbonize as she continues investigating ways to incorporate renewable energy and concentrating solar energy into minerals processing.

“I enjoy the teamwork with industry partners that keeps us grounded,” she said.

“As a researcher, it is very satisfying to see how ideas that we propose in research can become real when we develop and demonstrate the technologies and processes. There’s great satisfaction in working with fellow researchers to evaluate how we can produce the minerals and metals that our society requires in less harmful ways than in the past.”

Typically, advanced concentrated solar research is handled in universities’ mechanical engineering faculties. Initially, she had been hesitant to start a doctorate in mechanical engineering, as her experience had been in chemical engineering and minerals processing. However, her experience with process modeling and thermodynamics proved applicable.

“I would encourage young students with an ambition to make a change in the world to consider a career in concentrating solar research,” she said. 

“It is a career path where you can set your own direction, results are based on your own application, and the skills that you learn are adaptable for growth in many ways. I continue to learn new skills, and the work is never boring.”

Founding a start-up – concentrating solar heat for manufacturing jet fuel

Philipp Furler is now the CEO of Synhelion, the company that just built the world’s first industrial solar fuel plant, DAWN. I had first interviewed him when he was the Task Leader in solar thermochemistry for SolarPACES about the solar thermochemistry research that led to this invention. Furler’s “aha” moment had come at university.

“During my Bachelor’s degree at ETH Zurich, we visited a lab where I saw how concentrated sunlight melted a ceramic block in a matter of seconds,” said Furler.

“This was a key moment for me as I witnessed how powerful concentrated sunlight can be. Then I did my Master’s…