A breakthrough by chemists at the University of California-Berkeley could have a profound impact on the growing market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
In an article appearing this week in the journal Science, UC Berkeley chemists show how to construct a catalyst composed only of edges and demonstrate that it can catalyze the production of hydrogen from water as readily as the edges and defects in regular catalysts.
“This is a conceptual advance in the way we think about generating hydrogen, a clean burning fuel, from water, a sustainable source,” said Christopher Chang, associate professor of chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at UC Berkeley. “Our new catalyst is just first generation, but the research gives us and the community a path forward to thinking about how to increase the density of functional active sites so that molecules and materials can be more effective catalysts.”
At the moment, creating these catalysts in the lab is not cheaper than using traditional catalysts, but efforts by Chang and others to simplify the process and create materials with billions of active sites on a ridged wafer much like a Ruffles potato chip could allow cheaper, commercially viable fuel cell catalysts.
…could have a profound impact on the growing market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
What growing market for hydrogen fuel cells? The problem with hydrogen fuel cells is that they need hydrogen to make them work. And hydrogen is difficult to handle as either a high-pressure or cryogenic liquid. Plus the cost of building a hydrogen distribution system would be daunting.
Better solutions that I have never read about in Domestic Fuel would be ammonia or methanol fuel cells. Both types of fuel cells are possible, and ammonia and methanol are much easier and would be less expensive to handle than either liquid or high-pressure hydrogen.
Farmers should be especially excited about ammonia fuel cells. Almost every farm in the Midwest already has ammonia storage tanks, or is close to an ag supply company that stores and sells ammonia.
What hasn’t Big Ag asked for research into ammonia fuel cells?
How does this technology compare to catalytic carbon as published by Philips the non profit pharmaceutical company.?
Bioleux Polska has the PARS technology to reform bio-ammonia and bio-methanol into hydrogen with a +99% efficiency, on-demand. Thus the hydrogen storage issue is entirely avoided.
That means that the fuel cells can use a renewable feedstock which is as cheap as biomass/wastes it’s made of.
Sounds revolutionary ? We’ve been preaching that for a while now.
Should the fuel cell companies notice ?
Bob Canfield is correct. Either ammonia (NH4) or methanol would be a better choice for fuel cells than hydrogen. Especially considering how daunting and expensive building a hydrogen distribution infrastructure would prove.
Both ammonia and methanol are much easier to handle than hydrogen, are useable in fuel cells, and ammonia also has the advantage of counting no carbon. The emissions from an ammonia fuel cell are nothing more than water and nitrogen — and the earth’s atmosphere is already 78% nitrogen.
I too have to wonder about the money and research going towards hydrogen fuel cells, when the possibility of ammonia and methanol fuel cells seem so obvious.
Bioleux Polska has the PARS technology to reform bio-ammonia and bio-methanol into hydrogen with a +99% efficiency…
Martin,
Why turn methanol or ammonia into hydrogen when ammonia and methanol are so much easier to handle?
Almost every farmer already has experience handling ammonia. Why impose on those farers the added cost of either cryogenic or high-pressure hydrogen?
Much cheaper and less expensive to use either ammonia or methanol fuel cells. No expensive new infrastructure and distribution network needed.
Ammonia fuel cells have a huge potential that hardly anyone talks about.
Why not use the hydrogen as it comes off the catalyst in a self contained system? Water goes in, is converted there to hydrogen, which is piped to the fuel cell and moves the vehicle. How does this concept take away from what the researchers at UC Berkley are doing? Based only on reading this article are there not many potentials that may be gleaned from applying any findings from this research? Is this that far-fetched? Who can argue ammonia is easier to store and use compared to water?
Dear All,
I think the hydrogen distribution system is available at any gas station that has municipal or well water Rain water capture is another possibility.
A few hours’ supply of H2 can be stored on site to keep up with daily sales. Solid state storage is feasible and safe.
Production can be 24/7 if necessary to meet demand.
Regards,
Wendell
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