Sustainable Energy

'A fresh strategy': U of T researchers discover low-cost way to produce hydrogen from water

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 17:49:34 +0000

'A fresh strategy': U of T researchers discover low-cost way to produce hydrogen from water

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 12/13/2018 - 12:49

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Researchers in U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have discovered a new catalyst that lowers the amount of electricity required to split water into hydrogen and oxygen under pH-neutral conditions (photo by Tyler Irving)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Innovation

Sargent Group

Sustainable Energy

A new catalyst developed by ��Ƶ researchers could make it cheaper and easier to produce hydrogen from water – a process some say is key to storing energy from renewable, but intermittent, sources like solar and wind.

The new catalyst, developed in the lab of University Professor Ted Sargent, uses abundant, low-cost elements to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen under conditions like those found in ordinary seawater.

That, in turn, could make it feasible to use renewable electricity to produce hydrogen from water and then later reverse the process in an electrochemical fuel cell, resulting in clean power on demand.

“Hydrogen is a hugely important industrial feedstock, but unfortunately today it is derived overwhelmingly from fossil fuels, resulting in a large carbon footprint,” says Sargent, who is the senior author of a paper in Nature Energy that describes the new catalyst.

“Electrolysis – water splitting to produce renewable hydrogen and oxygen – is a compelling technology, but it needs further improvements in efficiency, cost, and longevity.

“This work offers a fresh strategy to pursue these critically important aims."

Pelayo Garcia De Arquer (left) and Cao Thang Dinh (right) examine a wafer coated in their new catalyst (photo by Tyler Irving)

Sargent’s lab, in U of T's Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is among several research groups around the world racing to create catalysts that lower the amount of electricity needed to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Currently, the best-performing catalysts rely on platinum, a high-cost material, and operate under acidic conditions.

“Our new catalyst is made from copper, nickel and chromium, which are all more abundant and less costly than platinum,” says Cao Thang Dinh, a co-lead author on the paper along with his fellow postdoctoral researchers Pelayo Garcia De Arquer and Ankit Jain.

“But what’s most exciting is that it performs well under pH-neutral conditions, which opens up a number of possibilities.”

Seawater, for example, is the most abundant source of water on earth, Dinh points out. But using seawater with traditional catalysts under acidic conditions would require the salt to be removed first, an energy-intensive process. Operating at neutral pH avoids the high cost of desalination.

It could also enable the use of microorganisms to make chemicals such as methanol and ethanol. “There are bacteria that can combine hydrogen and CO2 to make hydrocarbon fuels,” says Garcia De Arquer. “They could grow in the same water and take up the hydrogen as it’s being made, but they cannot survive under acidic conditions.”

Using renewable energy to convert waste CO2 into fuels or other value-added products is the goal of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize. A team from Sargent’s lab is among the five finalists in the international competition, vying for a US$7.5-million grand prize.

In the paper, the team reports that the “overpotential” achieved with the new catalyst – the amount of electrical energy required to liberate the hydrogen from water – is the lowest ever observed under neutral conditions, though it still lags behind traditional platinum catalysts operated at acidic conditions.

“Creating hydrogen from water under neutral conditions is inherently tough – it’s like trying to make an ice sculpture on a sunny day,” says Phil De Luna, a PhD candidate in materials science and engineering and another of the study’s co-authors.

“As far as we know, this catalyst is the best way to do it.”

U of T's Supermileage Team hopes to reclaim top spot at Detroit competition

ullahnor — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 15:48:24 +0000

U of T's Supermileage Team hopes to reclaim top spot at Detroit competition

ullahnor Tue, 04/25/2017 - 11:48

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Supermileage Team lead Mengqi Wang hopes improvements to her team’s student-designed and student-built vehicles will get them to the podium at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition (photo by Marit Mitchell)

Marit Mitchell

Author legacy

Marit Mitchell

Topic

Breaking Research

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Supermileage

Students

Education

Undergraduate Students

Clean Energy

Sustainable Energy

Subheadline

Students race hyper-efficient gasoline and battery-powered vehicles at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition

The ��Ƶ’s Supermileage Team is hoping to take back the top spot at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas (SEMA) competition.

After snagging a silver medal last year, the team – made up of U of T Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering students – has been working around the clock this year to design and build two hyper-efficient vehicles to race in two categories: gasoline prototype and battery electric. The vehicles will be put to the test April 27 to 30 in Detroit.

“Last year, we didn’t meet our own expectations – the team felt pretty deflated after the race,” says Supermileage team lead Mengqi Wang, a PhD candidate. “A lot of things went wrong that we weren’t expecting.”

Follow Shell Eco-marathon Americas news, highlights and results

Clean water, clean air: U of T engineer looks at sustainable energy and mitigating climate change

ullahnor — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 21:33:47 +0000

Clean water, clean air: U of T engineer looks at sustainable energy and mitigating climate change

ullahnor Fri, 12/02/2016 - 16:33

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From left to right, Professor Ramin Farnood with students Reena Cabanilla and Yu Fan Qi (photo by Marit Mitchell)

Marit Mitchell

Author legacy

Marit Mitchell

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Sustainable Energy

Every person on this planet needs clean water to survive. Yet the World Bank estimates that 1.6 billion people – that’s more than one in five – live in a region of “absolute water scarcity.” That number is expected to climb to 2.8 billion by 2025 due to climate change.

U of T's Chemical Engineering Professor Ramin Farnood has devoted much of his career to developing novel methods of treating both waste and drinking water to eliminate both microbial and chemical contaminants. Now, he’s applying that expertise to mitigating climate change.

The research connection between clean water and climate change mitigation is a new one, born out of the novel membrane technologies Farnood and his research group have developed over more than five years of work.

“We’ve recently begun looking at using these membranes to remove carbon dioxide from air,” says Farnood. “We’re also studying converting biomass – such as sewage and algae – to hydrogen and methane as an alternative source to fossil fuels for energy.”

His research group is developing dense, non-porous membranes that allow one gas molecule, such as CO2, to diffuse passively across the film, but prevent other gasses from doing so. If this membrane were built into the flue of a CO2-emitting plant or factory, like a chimney with an ultra-thin sheet down the middle, CO2 could be isolated from the plant’s emissions and captured.

It’s the first part of a holistic multi-stage carbon-capture-and-conversion process: other researchers in the department of chemical engineering & applied chemistry, including Professor Grant Allen, are working on using that captured CO2 as food for biomass, such as algae, that could then be turned into alternative fuels.

To advance this work and foster faculty and industry participation, Farnood is leading Carbon Control for Climate Change Mitigation, or C4M, an initiative supported by the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering's Dean’s Strategic Fund.

“We launched this initiative to better address the emerging needs of industry – that’s the difference in our approach,” says Farnood. C4M will act as a catalyst in three key areas: the optimization of existing processes to minimize greenhouse gas emissions; inventing transformative technologies to replace existing equipment or processes, and the capture and conversion of greenhouse gasses.

“We want to reduce greenhouse gasses by optimization, innovation of totally new processes, and whatever we can’t reduce, capture and convert,” he says. “Those are the three pillars of C4M.”

C4M is one project of U of T engineering’s multidisciplinary Institute for Sustainable Energy, and Farnood also leverages strong industry ties through the Institute for Water Innovation (IWI), both of which will be housed in the new Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, currently under construction. IWI and the Drinking Water Research Group recently hosted an intensive one-day research workshop in concert with industry partner Trojan Technologies, a leader in UV systems for drinking water and wastewater decontamination.

“I find myself being attracted by intriguing big questions,” says Farnood. “And not afraid of taking chances, starting something new.” There is no bigger research question than how humans will secure a future of clean water and sustainable energy.

Sustainable Energy

'A fresh strategy': U of T researchers discover low-cost way to produce hydrogen from water

U of T's Supermileage Team hopes to reclaim top spot at Detroit competition

Read more about the Supermileage Team in Canadian Geographic

Read more about the team’s evolution in AutoFocus

Follow Shell Eco-marathon Americas news, highlights and results

Clean water, clean air: U of T engineer looks at sustainable energy and mitigating climate change