Researchers at Rice University have built on previous discoveries and found a way to produce hydrogen using light instead of energy-intensive heat, making the process more eco-friendly.
Steam methane reforming is a method of producing hydrogen from natural gas that is positioned as a key fuel for a more sustainable future. However, the chemical reactions needed to make it require intense heat, the generation of which produces planet-heating gases, as a university report posted at TechXplore explained.
In addition, the catalysts for the reactions suffer from coking, a carbon buildup that can make them ineffective over time.
🗣️ Could America stop using oil and gas by 2050?
🔘 For sure 👍
🔘 No way 👎
🔘 Only certain states could 🗺️
🔘 I'm not sure 🤷
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
This new process uses copper-rhodium as a photocatalyst to fuel the SMR process, which has an antenna-reactor design composed of plasmonic nanoparticles. The copper segment works as an energy-harvesting antenna, while scattered rhodium atoms and clusters on that surface work as catalytic reactors.
"We do plasmonic photochemistry — the plasmon is really our key here — because plasmons are really efficient light absorbers, and they can generate very energetic carriers that can do the chemistry we need them to much more efficiently than conventional thermocatalysis," said Yigao Yuan, a Rice doctoral student who is a first author on the study, per TechXplore.
The use of light can also leverage "hot carriers," or photoactive electrons, that exist in a high-energy state in photoactive materials to remove carbon deposits on the catalysts and essentially reactivate them.
By eliminating the burning of dirty fuels to power the SMR process, this method of producing "green" hydrogen could mark a new path for the futuristic fuel. That hydrogen can be used to power fuel-cell electric vehicles along with other applications, and it only emits water vapor as a byproduct when used in a fuel cell.
"This is one of our most impactful findings so far, because it offers an improved alternative to what is arguably the most important chemical reaction for modern society," said Peter Nordlander, a multidisciplinary professor at Rice, per the report.
"We developed a completely new, much more sustainable way of doing SMR."
Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
