In order to integrate renewable energy sources into the grid and provide a steady and dependable electricity supply, renewable energy storage is essential. It aids in easing the difficulties caused by the variable nature of wind and solar energy and helps lessen greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.
Now, researchers at City University Hong Kong (CityU) and Imperial College London have conceived of a new catalyst based on single atoms of platinum that allows excess energy to be stored as hydrogen.
This is according to a press release by the institutions published on Wednesday.
Helping meet net-zero goals by 2050
“The UK Hydrogen Strategy sets out an ambition to reach 10GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. To facilitate that goal, we need to ramp up the production of cheap, easy-to-produce and efficient hydrogen storage. The new electrocatalyst could be a major contributor to this, ultimately helping the UK meet its net-zero goals by 2050,” said co-author Professor Anthony Kucernak, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial.
In order to save excess energy as hydrogen, water molecules are divided into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy, with the energy stored in the hydrogen atoms. This process, known as electrolysis, uses platinum catalysts to ignite a reaction that divides the water molecule. Platinum is a fantastic catalyst for this process, but because it is expensive and scarce, it must be used as little as possible to keep system costs down and platinum extraction to a minimum.
In order to create a platform for water splitting that is both efficient and affordable, the team designed and tested a catalyst that utilizes the least amount of platinum possible.
The research team’s breakthrough entails distributing individual platinum atoms in a layer of molybdenum sulphide (MoS2). By interacting with the molybdenum to increase reaction efficiency, the platinum in this process uses far less material than other catalysts and even improves performance.
Next steps: turning hydrogen back into electricity
In the next steps, renewable energy must then be turned into electricity once it has been stored as hydrogen using fuel cells, which results in the production of water vapor as a byproduct of an oxygen-splitting reaction. Recently, professor Kucernak and associates unveiled a single-atom catalyst for this process that uses iron as opposed to platinum. This innovation will be less expensive in addition to being more adaptable and will allow the new energy storage solution to be mass-produced.
“Hydrogen generated by electrocatalytic water splitting is regarded as one of the most promising clean energies for replacing fossil fuels in the near future, reducing environmental pollution and the greenhouse effect,” said lead researcher Professor Zhang Hua, from CityU.
The researchers now plan to use some of their spinout companies to test this development in their fuel cells. If proven successful, the new advances could contribute to implementing a hydrogen economy.
