Swiss scientists have completed their solution for
transforming hydrogen gas into a less flammable liquid
fuel that can be safely stored and transported. Another
possible application of their technology would be to use
atmospheric CO2to synthesize a number of useful
chemical products.
Hydrogen is often touted as the fuel of the future. But
because this gas is highly explosive, it must be stored
and transported under pressure in specialized and
expensive containers. Hydrogen therefore has issues in
terms of safety, logistics, and profitability that could
significantly its wider use. However, a solution
might lie in research bởi EPFL scientists, who have
developed a simple system based on two chemical
reactions. The first reaction transforms hydrogen into
formic acid, a liquid that is easy to store and less
flammable than gasoline, while the một giây reaction
does the reverse and restores the hydrogen. Another
possible application of their technology would be to use
atmospheric CO2 to synthesize a number of useful
chemical products.
Gabor Laurenczy's team has already developed a
process for transforming formic acid into hydrogen gas.
The method was the subject of several articles, one of
which appeared in Science , and it is currently under
industrial development. But a complete and coherent
system would also require the inverse process:
transforming hydrogen into formic acid. This has now
been achieved, completing the cycle, thanks to the
financial support of EOS Holding. The scientists in
Laurenczy's team have described the process in a
Nature Communications article.
The researchers synthesized formic acid in a single
step, starting with hydrogen and atmospheric CO2.
Conventional methods to accomplish this involve
several steps, which are complicated to carry out and
generate undesirable chemical byproducts.
The two chemical reactions – hydrogen to formic acid
and back to hydrogen - are catalytic: the advantage is
that nothing is Mất tích in the transformation, and the
process can thus be used in constructing sustainable
devices.
With their two catalytic reactions, the researchers now
possess all the technology they need to build a
complete, integrated device. Laurenczy envisions small
energy storage units in which the current from
photovoltaic cells produces hydrogen bởi electrolysis,
which is then transformed and stored as formic acid,
and finally transformed back into hydrogen to produce
electricity at night-time. "Our procedure is simple
enough that it can be implemented at the domestic
level," he says.
Another possible application of this technology would
be to use atmospheric CO2, a greenhouse gas, as a
building-block for chemical synthesis. Formic acid is
the basis of numerous organic syntheses, e.g. in the
textile industry. As Laurenczy explains: "We are killing
two birds with one stone: we could sequester part of
the 35 gigatons of CO2 that are emitted into the
atmosphere every year, and also use it to synthesize
materials."