Hydrogen breakthrough could make fuel greener

July 22, 2014 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

Rutgers researchers have developed a technology that could overcome a major cost barrier to making clean-burning hydrogen fuel. The technology is intended to replace cost-prohibitive platinum for electrolysis reaction. The resulting hydrogen fuel could, potentially, replace fossil fuels.

A new technology based on carbon nanotubes promises commercially viable hydrogen production from water. Credit: Tewodros Asefa

Finding ways to make electrolysis reactions commercially viable is important because processes that make hydrogen today start with methane -- itself a fossil fuel -- thus the need to consume fossil fuel negates current claims that hydrogen is a "green" fuel, according to the researchers.

The researchers contend that electrolysis could produce hydrogen using electricity generated by renewable sources, such as solar, wind and hydro energy, or by carbon-neutral sources, such as nuclear energy. Even if fossil fuels were used for electrolysis, the higher efficiency and better emissions controls of large power plants could give hydrogen fuel cells an advantage over less efficient and more polluting gasoline and diesel engines in millions of vehicles and other applications, the researchers said.

"Hydrogen has long been expected to play a vital role in our future energy landscapes by mitigating, if not completely eliminating, our reliance on fossil fuels," said Tewodros Asefa, associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the School of Arts and Sciences and associate professor of chemical and biochemical engineering in the School of Engineering, in a statement. "We have developed a sustainable chemical catalyst that, we hope with the right industry partner, can bring this vision to life."

A patent on the catalyst is pending.

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