Erwin Reisner

Erwin Reisner is the Professor of Energy and Sustainability in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, where he also holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. He is also a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. He is an expert in renewable energy technologies and sustainable chemistry, in particular the sunlight-powered production of sustainable fuels and platform chemicals. His cross-disciplinary research into solar chemistry and circular chemical technologies focuses on the capture and utilisation of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as well as the valorisation of plastics and biomass waste to produce green fuels and chemicals for a net zero future.

Erwin and his team have developed concepts and approaches for the direct integration of synthetic and biological catalysts with photovoltaic light absorbers to enable efficient and selective solar-driven chemical synthesis. The understanding and assembly of such semiconductor-molecule 'hybrid materials' and 'semi-artificial’ biohybrids has led to the construction of autonomous solar-powered prototype devices for solar fuel production. Their ‘solar fuels devices’ demonstrated artificial photosynthesis by converting carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, formic acid, multi-carbon alcohols or acetic acid, while oxidising water to co-produce oxygen gas. Erwin’s team also established 'solar reforming’ as a practical approach to upcycle lignocellulosic biomass and plastic waste to platform chemicals and fuels. Their concepts and solar-powered prototype devices demonstrated the performance and economic advantages of oxidising solid waste streams instead of oxidising water, making the lab-to-market transition of solar chemistry a realistic long-term prospect. To accelerate the commercialisation of solar reforming, he and his colleagues have protected the underlying core IP and co-founded the start-up company ‘Protonera’. His team has also made contributions to show the potential of heterogeneous semiconductor photocatalysts for green organic synthesis and has reported solar hybrid technologies to demonstrate the benefits of integrated solar chemistry over conventional photovoltaic-electrolyser technologies.