HDelivery

An EPSRC-funded consortium of 12 Universities supported by industry

Work Package 1 – Hydrogen From Carbon

Carbon cycling is an integral part of natural and human energy cycles. Our need to reduce net
carbon emissions requires us to rethink how we employ carbon in our energy production
processes. WP1 seeks to develop emergent technologies that will allow much greater net
efficiencies in our use of energy-production carbon from both traditional and bio-sources.

500µm

0.14 0.14 O
CN
H2O 150µm O
O
0.12 0.12
O
0.10 0.10 CN
-1

-1

0.08 H2O-TPO
0.08 Meeting the technical challenges: false colour images of Al2O3 microtubes before catalyst
o
730 C


o -1
=10 C min impregnation. These micro-tubes developed at by Prof. Kang Li’s research group at
-1 o
F0.9%H2O=20 ml min 650 C
0.06 0.06 Imperial College London are ideal catalyst supports, providing high surface area in a small
91 moles of H2 produced

volume. Impregnated with the right catalysts these unique and highly compact reactors are
0.04 0.04
showing significant potential for compact, efficient and scalable hydrogen production.
H2
0.02 0.02 Imperial are supplying these remarkable substrates to some other consortium members for
catalyst development work.
0.00 0.00 Medium scale rig for H2 production
200 400 600 800 1000
o from formic acid: A system that Microporous polymers for H2
T/ C
achieves continuous generation of H2 purification: These novel polymers are
Thermochemical water splitting: H2 production from
developed by Prof. Martin Wills and being developed at Cardiff by Prof. Neil
water splitting over perovskite-type mixed metal
co-workers at Warwick. The image McKeown specifically for sieving H2
oxides. Initial studies by Prof. Ian Metcalfe and his
shows a reactor into which formic from H2/CO2 streams produced in the
team at Newcastle indicate that these materials provide
acid is injected by a pump using a water-gas-shift reaction. Cardiff have
clean H2 in comparison to transition metal oxides. The
feedback from a temperature probe. used their participation in this Supergen
oxygen rejuvenates the perovskite in a cyclic process
i.e., when the temperature falls, more project to leverage additional funding of
implying a significant economic lifespan for
formic acid enters the reactor. The around £600K in several grants to
technology.
reaction is exothermic so it keeps extend their work in this area.
itself hot when formic acid is
decomposing to produce hydrogen.

O
O C O O O

A two-pronged approach, activation of CO2: Work

At the heart of quality research is quality training of young researchers:
EPSRC-Johnson Matthey CASE award funded PhD student Andrew
Rollinson and SUPERGEN HDel funded PhD student Roger Mollinder in
Dr. Valerie Dupont’s H2 production lab in Leeds. Helen Gallon, a 3rd
Year Research Student in the School of Chemistry working with Prof.
Chris Whitehead at The University of Manchester working on low
temperature plasma methods for hydrogen production, spent June -
September working on plasma-catalytic
production at AIST, Japan supported by a JSPS Fellowship.
underway in Prof. Edman Tsang’s Oxford team
involves the activation of CO2 and reaction with
propylene oxide to form propylene carbonate (PC), a Technical challenges to overcome: H2 selectivity
useful chemical feedstock with applications such as; a changes under different process conditions
polar aprotic solvent, a plasticizer and a component in (temperature in this case) through a palladium-
adhesives, paint strippers and some cosmetics. yttrium (Pd-Y) composite membrane developed
Polypropylene carbonate (PCC) is also useful, at Birmingham. Dr. David Book and his team
particularly as a binder in the ceramics industry. The extract improvements in the efficiency of existing
critical point of this type of process is that it prevents state of the art hydrogen separation / cleaning
the captured CO2 from being emitted and locks it into technology by means of alloy development and
methods for hydrogen useful and economically valuable products. process optimisation.

www.supergen14.org
RE Hydrogen Ltd.

For further information about the consortium, please contact Dr M. Smith (project manager) at: mjs6@st-andrews.ac.uk.