Novel Nanostructured Materials for Sustainable Energy Applications

In the last few decades, energy usage and demand has been increased by many folds due to rising population growth and the industrial revolution. According to the recent United Nations report, the current world population 7.7 billion, and it may reach to 8.6 billion in the year 2030 and 9.8 billion in the year 2050. So, there is an ever-increasing energy need in the coming years, due to population growth and the industrial revolution. However, due to the increasing living standards of the population in developing countries, the energy requirement will get doubled in the next few decades. At present, nearly 80% of the global energy demand is met from fossil fuels, which are the non-renewable energy source and it leaves behind carbon footprints after usage, causing environmental pollution and climate change. On the other hand, the usage of fossil fuels emits carbon -based greenhouse gases upon usage. In the past few years, CO2 emission from fossil fuels has increased drastically, causing environmental pollution and climate change. There is an urgent need for developing materials and technologies to combat the dangerous emissions of CO2 from industrial sectors such as power generation plants, cement production, petrochemical production, aluminium, steel and plastic manufacturing industries.
Hence the upcoming energy shortage and the rising concern over climate change, there is an urgent need to find clean energy alternatives. Owing to the serious concern over climate change due to the increasing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel usage, environmentally friendly renewable energies are the prime choice for satisfying our future energy needs. Renewable energies on the other hand are inexhaustible and are decentralized (can be produced anywhere locally).

Renewable energy is the growing energy source around the world, accounting for 40% of the increase in primary energy by 2030. Renewable energies such as solar, tidal and wind energy provide intermittent supplies of electricity, while options for large-scale storage of electricity and transportations are limited. With the rise in energy demand, energy conversion and clean energy storage technologies has become the essential approaches for the global community.