Farm waste can turn into hydrogen fuel
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Agricultural waste can be used to produce hydrogen under new production processes that use less energy than existing methods and do not release greenhouse gases.
This novel process converts bioethanol into clean hydrogen and acetic acid. This is a substance found in vinegar, also used in the chemicals, food and pharmaceutical industries.
Most hydrogen is produced from natural gas. This process is energy intensive and expensive. Hydrogen can also be produced from water using renewable electricity, but this approach is even more expensive than using natural gas.
Graham Hatchings The University of Cardiff in the UK and his colleagues have developed an alternative method that relies on catalysts made of platinum and iridium to extract hydrogen from bioethanol and water without releasing carbon dioxide. The bioethanol used in this process can be made from waste plant materials, says Hatchings.
“We don’t make CO2, so we don’t make anything that’s an environmental burden,” says Hatchings. “We’re taking a biologically sustainable source of carbon and hydrogen and converting it into renewable hydrogen and renewable acetic acid. It’s pretty clean.”
The team says the process is likely to be scalable and commercially viable, and requires much less energy than creating hydrogen from natural gas. The next step is to attract commercial investments to establish a demonstration factory, Hutchings says.
Clean hydrogen production needs to be fundamentally expanded in industries such as steel, chemicals and long-distance transportation where hydrogen fuels are expected to be needed.
But the world uses it Approximately 18 million tons of acetic acid per yearThis new process, which limits its potential role, can play in meeting the demand for zero carbon hydrogen.
“On a molecular basis, we make twice as much hydrogen as acetic acid,” says Hutchings. “But acetic acid is much heavier than hydrogen,” meaning that in this way, producing 18 million tons of acetic acid, the total global annual demand, is far less than the net-zero world demand. You can only get hydrogen that is slightly greater than hydrogen. “There’s a bit of a mismatch in terms of scale.” Klaus Helgard Imperial College London.
Rather, new processes could provide a potential pathway to the decarbonised portion of the chemical industry, with attractive by-products due to clean hydrogen production, says Hatchings. “Acetic acid is effectively made from fossil carbon at this point, and what we’re here is that we can make it from a sustainable carbon source,” he says.
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