APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- Liquid organic hydrogen carrier systems for safe and efficient hydrogen storage
BENEFITS:
Lower capital and operating costs due to:
- No pre-sulfidation of catalysts
- No H2 co-feeding
- No addition of second metal species
- Industrial feasibility; amenable to one-pot method
BACKGROUND:
The use of liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) systems for hydrogen storage has garnered substantial attention due to their capacity to facilitate safe, feasible, and cost-effective storage and transportation of hydrogen within the pre-existing fuel infrastructure. The dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane (MCH) and the hydrogenation of toluene (TL) are key steps in a reversible chemical cycle used in LOHCs. This cycle is promising as it has the widest temperature range within which it can exist as a liquid form material. However, state of the art catalysts used for the dehydrogenation of MCH suffer from low efficiency, the requirement of pre-sulfidation treatment, low selectivity of H2 production, as well as the need to co-feed H2 into the LOHC system, which increases operational costs.
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW:
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed a catalyst composed of Platinum (Pt) nanoparticles immobilized onto titanium dioxide (TiO2) that exhibits active, selective, and durable MCH dehydrogenation performance in the absence of H2 co-feeding. In this catalyst, Pt nanoparticles are immobilized on the TiO2 surface. Additionally, the electron-deficient Pt nanoparticles facilitate the desorption of toluene and H2, which greatly prevents coke formation that deactivates catalysts.
Without the pre-sulfidation of Pt species, the Pt/TiO2 catalyst achieved high MCH conversion and high toluene selectivity in initial experiments. Additionally, no deactivation was observed within 500h under a liquid hourly space velocity 5 h-1. The Pt/TiO2 catalyst displayed high activity and selectivity on both the dehydrogenation and hydrogenation of the methylcyclohexane (MCH)/toluene (TL) system.
The Pt/TiO2 catalyst requires no pre-sulfidation treatment, helping to avoid the corrosion of industrial equipment by sulfur-containing acid, which decreases the potential safety risk and also greatly lowers equipment maintenance cost. Moreover, the produced H2 is sulfur-free, which is beneficial for downstream use, such as for fuel cells. The Pt/TiO2 catalyst is obtained using TiO2, without the addition of second noble metals and can operate without H2 co-feeding, making it cost-effective and scalable.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE:
Analytical and experimental critical function.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
Ji Yang
Sudong Chae
David Prendergast
Ji Su
IP Status:
Patent pending
OPPORTUNITIES:
Available for licensing or collaborative research