Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 17:14:37 GMT 10
Researchers around the world are looking for low-cost methods to produce clean hydrogen from water to replace fossil fuels as part of the quest to combat climate change.
Water electrolysis is a potentially sustainable means of producing hydrogen and the process has been around for over a century. Unfortunately, only rare and expensive iridium is a sufficiently stable and active oxidation catalyst in the most efficient acidic environment. The lack of supply and high cost of iridium represents a major barrier to the widespread adoption of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers.
Now, a team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has developed a low-cost catalyst for a process that produces clean hydrogen from water.
The researchers say the m C Level Executive List ain ingredient in their new catalyst is cobalt, which is substantially cheaper than iridium.
“We are seeking to develop a low-cost anode catalyst in a PEM electrolyzer that generates hydrogen at high performance with minimal energy consumption,” said Di-Jia Liu, senior chemist at Argonne. "By using the cobalt-based catalyst prepared with our method, the main cost bottleneck of producing clean hydrogen in an electrolyzer could be eliminated."
Other contributors to the project include DOE's Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as Giner Inc, a research and development company working to commercialize electrolyzers and fuel cells.
The company evaluated the new catalyst using its PEM electrolyzer test stations under industrial operating conditions. Researchers say performance and durability far exceeded those of competing catalysts.
The research team deciphered the critical structural changes that occur in the catalyst under operating conditions by using X-ray analysis at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne. They also identified key features of the catalyst using electron microscopy at Sandia Labs and Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM). Both APS and CNM are DOE Office of Science user facilities.
“We imaged the atomic structure on the surface of the new catalyst at various stages of preparation,” said Jianguo Wen, a materials scientist at Argonne.
Additionally, computational modeling at Berkeley Lab revealed important information about catalyst durability under reaction conditions.
"More generally, our results establish a promising path to replacing catalysts made of expensive precious metals with elements that are much less expensive and more abundant," Liu noted.
Water electrolysis is a potentially sustainable means of producing hydrogen and the process has been around for over a century. Unfortunately, only rare and expensive iridium is a sufficiently stable and active oxidation catalyst in the most efficient acidic environment. The lack of supply and high cost of iridium represents a major barrier to the widespread adoption of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers.
Now, a team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has developed a low-cost catalyst for a process that produces clean hydrogen from water.
The researchers say the m C Level Executive List ain ingredient in their new catalyst is cobalt, which is substantially cheaper than iridium.
“We are seeking to develop a low-cost anode catalyst in a PEM electrolyzer that generates hydrogen at high performance with minimal energy consumption,” said Di-Jia Liu, senior chemist at Argonne. "By using the cobalt-based catalyst prepared with our method, the main cost bottleneck of producing clean hydrogen in an electrolyzer could be eliminated."
Other contributors to the project include DOE's Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as Giner Inc, a research and development company working to commercialize electrolyzers and fuel cells.
The company evaluated the new catalyst using its PEM electrolyzer test stations under industrial operating conditions. Researchers say performance and durability far exceeded those of competing catalysts.
The research team deciphered the critical structural changes that occur in the catalyst under operating conditions by using X-ray analysis at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne. They also identified key features of the catalyst using electron microscopy at Sandia Labs and Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM). Both APS and CNM are DOE Office of Science user facilities.
“We imaged the atomic structure on the surface of the new catalyst at various stages of preparation,” said Jianguo Wen, a materials scientist at Argonne.
Additionally, computational modeling at Berkeley Lab revealed important information about catalyst durability under reaction conditions.
"More generally, our results establish a promising path to replacing catalysts made of expensive precious metals with elements that are much less expensive and more abundant," Liu noted.