IIT Guwahati research team develops catalyst to produce hydrogen from wood alcohol

The Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IITG) said a research team has developed a catalyst that can release hydrogen gas from wood alcohol without any side production of carbon dioxide.

The development makes methanol a promising ‘Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier’ (LOHC) and contributes to the concept of hydrogen-methanol economy, the IITG said in a statement on Monday.

Also Read: IIT Guwahati researchers develop edible coating to keep fruits, vegetables fresh up to 2 months

"The research team said catalytic production of hydrogen from wood alcohol involves two challenges—it involves high temperatures in the range of 300 degree Celsius and at high pressures (20 atmosphere) and the reaction co-produces carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas. “This is where the IIT Guwahati team has found a solution,” said the institute.

The statement said the team developed a special form of catalyst called the ‘pincer’ catalyst, which contains a central metal and a few specific organic ligands. “It is called a pincer because the organic ligands are like the claws of a crab that hold the metal in place. Because of this special arrangement, the catalyst becomes very specific and selective. Thus, as wood alcohol is broken into hydrogen, formic acid is generated instead of carbon dioxide. The reaction takes place at 100 degree Celsius, much lower than the temperatures required for conventional methanol-reforming. To make the catalyst reusable, the researchers loaded the catalyst on an inert support. By this, they could reuse the catalyst over many cycles,” it said.

“As the world is moving towards finding alternatives to fossil fuels, hydrogen gas continues to be the best source of clean energy generation. Currently, hydrogen is produced either by the electrochemical splitting of water or from bio-derived chemicals such as alcohol. In the latter method, hydrogen is typically produced from methyl alcohol (commonly called wood alcohol) using a catalyst, in a process called methanol reforming,” said Akshai Kumar A S, associate professor of Chemistry at the IITG, who headed the research team.

“In methanol-reforming, in stark contrast to well-reported catalytic systems that act like Brahmastra and result in complete destruction to carbon dioxide, the current work involves a smart strategy to design pincer (crab-like) catalysts that selectively produce high-value formic acid and clean-burning hydrogen.”

ChemDist Group of Companies is the industry collaborator on this project.