TORONTO, July 3, 2025 /CNW/ – Hydrofuel Canada Inc. (“Hydrofuel”) is pleased to announce that its University of Toronto (“UofT”) Solar Fuels Cluster Research Team (“Solar Fuels Team”), under the direction of Dr. Geoffrey Ozin, has been awarded the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry‘s 2025 John Jeyes Horizon Prize in Environment, Sustainability and Energy for its ground-breaking work defining a chemical and light-based approach to refining nanomaterials leading to efficient gas-phase heterogeneous carbon dioxide photocatalysis.
The research of the Gas-phase Heterogeneous Catalysis for UofT’s Solar Fuels Team focuses on using light, rather than heat or electricity, to make everyday chemicals and fuels in a cleaner, more sustainable way. For over 100 years, industry has relied on fossil fuels and high temperatures as the energy and feedstock to drive heterogeneous catalytic processes for the manufacture of a myriad of commodity chemicals and fuels.
The Hydrofuel-funded UofT team is in the third year of a $2.5 Million (CAD) project working to flip that script by using light to power heterogeneous photocatalysis rather than heat to transform simple and abundant molecules, such as CO2, N2, and H2O, into sustainable chemicals, such as H2, CH3OH, C2H4, and NH3. This represents a key step toward decarbonising the chemicals and petrochemicals industries.
In this regard, light-based photocatalysis offers big advantages – less energy, lower emissions, and a smaller carbon footprint in the refining process. It is an exciting alternative to some of the more energy-intensive methods currently being utilized.
The RSC Horizon Prize recognises both the great research culture – which is essential for catalysing and developing breakthroughs – and the UofT Solar Fuels Team’s exceptionally gifted minds who know and respect the intrinsic value of sharing deep and diverse knowledge, fresh insights, ideas and inspirations.
“We are thrilled that the Royal Society of Chemistry has recognized our UofT Solar Fuels research with this prestigious prize,” said Greg Vezina, CEO of Hydrofuel Canada Inc.
“We recognized years ago the value of the research being conducted by UofT’s Solar Fuels Cluster and funded it. It is our expectation that this transformational photochemical science has come along far enough that commercialization projects to help decarbonize the refining of petrochemicals are not far away,” he added.
Leader of the UofT Solar Fuel Team, Dr. Geoffrey Ozin, gives particular credit to the 37 member collaborative universities team. “Success in this endeavour requires close cooperation between a highly talented international team of experimental, theoretical and computational scientists and engineers working alongside specialists in artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic automation with the combined skill set, to transform ideas in gas-phase heterogeneous photocatalysis to innovation in the development of solar refineries for the production of sustainable chemicals and fuels, a step towards decarbonisation of the fossil sourced and powered chemicals and petrochemicals industries,” he said.
“The work focuses on developing energy and cost-effective technologies that convert carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into valuable chemicals and fuels using solar energy. This approach aims to create a zero-emission CO₂ economy by harnessing sunlight for chemical transformations,” he concluded.
About Hydrofuel:
Hydrofuel Canada Inc. and its predecessor C.A.E.C.- Canadian Alternative Energy Corp. of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, have over 45 years of experience in Ammonia and Hydrogen production and utilization technologies. The Hydrofuel®™ Trade-Mark is registered in Canada, the USA and EU.
About University of Toronto Solar Fuels Cluster
The UofT Solar Fuels Cluster is an interdisciplinary research team devoted to developing scalable, cost-effective materials solutions towards using hydrocarbons, including methane and CO2, as chemical feedstock for valuable products, leveraging the expertise of some of Canada and the world’s leading chemists, engineers, and material scientists for a paradigm-shifting zero-emission economy.
2025 Royal Society of Chemistry Horizon Prize in Environment, Sustainability and Energy
https://www.rsc.org/standards-and-recognition/prizes/winners/gas-phase-heterogeneous-catalysis-for-solar-fuels-research
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