Liquid organic hydrogen carriers or the so called LOHCs, are organic molecules that react chemically with hydrogen (via a hydrogenation reaction) to form stable compounds that act as storehouses of hydrogen. This stored hydrogen can be released (via a dehydrogenation reaction) leaving behind the storage medium. The storage/release process is repeated, and the storage medium or the “fuel” is charged/discharged from hydrogen in each cycle. Hydrogen can be stored off-site and released when needed, and the existing fuel infrastructure can be utilized with minimum adaptation.
While this approach seems promising and has been already implemented, its applied aspects are strongly challenged by the need for a suitable catalytic system which can store and release hydrogen actively, selectively, in a robust and reproducible manner.
Conventionally synthesized catalysts often suffer from loss of activity due to metal leaching, agglomeration, and low dispersion on the porous support.
At C2CAT, we aim at improving the catalytic lifetime, activity and selectivity for LOHC applications. This is achieved by innovative synthesis technologies combined with quantum chemical research and machine learning (ML) techniques to improve the synthesis and enhance the dispersion of the active metal throughout the support.
Contact us to learn more about this topic and to test our LOHC catalyst products you can apply to your hydrogen storage system.
