Unmet Need: Using heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogen storage
The worldwide installed solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy capacity have surged exponentially for the past decades.1 However, renewable power generation is highly intermittent and seasonal, resulting in serious issues including grid capacity/stability, curtailment, and supply/demand mismatch. The storage of renewable energy is the major hurdle during the transition of fossil resources to renewable energy. One possible solution to the storage challenge is to use a regenerative hydrogen fuel cell (RHFC), which converts electricity to H2, a clean energy.
The Technology: Reversible hydrogenation of piperidine capture CO2
A highly efficient formate-piperidine adduct (FPA) based hydrogen storage system is developed. This system shows rapid reaction kinetics of both the hydrogenation of piperidine captured CO2 and the dehydrogenation of FPA over a catalyst under mild operating conditions. The FPA solution based hydrogen storage system is advantageous owing to the generation of high-purity hydrogen, which is free of carbon monoxide and ammonia.
Applications:
• Cost-effective rechargeable hydrogen battery for renewable energy storage.
Advantages:
• Piperidine captured CO2 shows the superior hydrogenation reactivity resulting in almost 95.5% formate yield in the ethanol-water solution.
• Fast kinetic rate of the reverse reaction of hydrogen discharging via dehydrogenation of the piperidine formate adduct in aqueous alcohol solutions.
• 100% yield of high-purity H2 in 40 mins at 100 °C.
• Zero impurities such as CO, NH3 or piperidine detected in the discharged H2.
• Piperidine improves both hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactivity.
Patent Information:
Provisional patent application has been filed.