Hamilton, who is a senior research associate from the Department of Chemistry at the U and A indicated that it had ended up as a result of the mixing these 2 things together, they engage with one another and, they work together resulting in hydrogen being emitted and floored them.
Hamilton then checked with chemistry professors Jeff Stryker and Jonathan Veinot, giving details of the unexpected finding and drawing on their respective expert opinions. The team had a rapid understanding that they had something extraordinary at hand, which the specific combination of powders maybe used as a new catalyst.
The catalyst which was produced was formed with material that is non-toxic and abundant. It is simple and economical to create, making it an inexpensive and accessible alternative to the presently used catalysts available in the market, which needs materials that are costly with limitations in supply.
Researchers also indicated that the catalyst can also be utilized with any type of water, another factor that provides it with an advantage over the present techniques that generate hydrogen, like water electrolysis.
“There’s a scarcity of potable water and that’s the biggest problem with water electrolysis to generate hydrogen — you have to use clean water,” added Hamilton. “With this, you don’t. We take something that is dirty, that you can’t drink, and generate hydrogen and electricity in a fuel cell. And it spits out water you can drink.”
Professor Veinot indicated that we could turn oil sands tailings ponds into utilizable fuel as the purification of water takes place. Further indicating that even though it sounds too good to be true, but it is not.
On top of the catalyst being a marked enhancement on the catalysts available now, it further transforms what is generally an energy-intensive process into a process achievable with much lesser temperatures as well as the lower energy input.
This recent catalyst-driven process also takes place in little oxygen, giving it lower volatility than the present methods. As Hamilton indicated that when utilizing a hydrogen fuel cell, the most frequent technique to produce hydrogen is via water electrolysis. This technique divides water into hydrogen and oxygen, dividing them, then recombining them in the fuel cell for electricity production.
“You mix hydrogen and oxygen and reach certain concentrations, that’s an explosive mixture. So you have to separate them to be able to use it safely. With our method, we sequester the oxygen without these expensive membrane separators that are normally used, and we can generate the hydrogen and have it go directly into the fuel cell. You don’t have to separate it,” explained Hamilton.
“Think about having your garden hose providing you with the water that can be converted basically on demand to the fuel you want. It takes away transport, it takes away storage, it takes away negative explosive possibilities,” said Veinot.
