{"552351":{"#nid":"552351","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Harvesting hydrogen from tough biomass","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EUS-based scientists have come up with \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/pubs.rsc.org\/en\/Content\/ArticleLanding\/2016\/EE\/C5EE03019F#!divAbstract\u0022\u003Ea sustainable way to harvest hydrogen fuel from biomass.\u003C\/a\u003E Their new electrolytic approach can even release hydrogen from obstinate molecules like lignin and cellulose.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlthough hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, it\u2019s so light that Earth\u2019s gravity cannot hold onto it. This is unfortunate, as molecular hydrogen also happens to be the cleanest fuel \u2013 burning in air to give just water and energy. Because only trace amounts exist in the atmosphere, most hydrogen fuel today is derived from fossil fuels, using processes called petroleum reforming and coal gasification. It can also be thermochemically extracted from biomass, using high temperatures and expensive catalysts. Other ways to harvest hydrogen from biomass are fermentation, electrolysis and photoelectrochemical conversion, but these methods cannot directly break down the fibrous lignin and cellulose found in wood and grass.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/deng.chbe.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYulin Deng\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and his team at Georgia Tech have developed a low-temperature electrolytic technology that can harvest hydrogen fuel from nearly all types of biomass.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe process takes place in an electrolysis cell containing a membrane that protons can pass through, sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. Water containing both powdered biomass and polyoxometalate (POM), a metal oxide catalyst, is added to the anode side of the cell. By heating the solution or exposing it to sunlight, POM molecules can grab hydrogen atoms from the biomass, becoming H-POM. Applying a voltage across the electrodes causes the H-POM molecules to dump an electron onto the positively charged anode, and a proton into the electrolyte solution. The electrons flow around a circuit to the cathode side of the cell, while the free floating protons diffuse though the membrane and combine with these electrons at the cathode, forming hydrogen atoms. The atoms then react to form stable hydrogen gas, which can be collected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EExperts in deriving hydrogen from biomass have praised the new approach. \u0022This process provides an open door to using smaller quantities of biomass and different biomass varieties for renewable hydrogen production,\u0022 said\u0026nbsp;Chris Zygarlicke, at the University of North Dakota. And David Kingfrom the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, added,\u0022This is really interesting work \u2026 the claimed Faradaic efficiency for the process is extremely high.\u2019\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDeng and his team are currently working to make the method even more efficient. \u0022Our goal is to collect 100 percent of the hydrogen atoms from biomass. We\u2019re also looking for an industrial collaborator to scale up the technique.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis article can be found in \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rsc.org\/chemistryworld\/2016\/01\/hydrogen-fuel-lignin-cellulose-biomass-electrolytic\u0022\u003EChemistry World\u003C\/a\u003E, a publication of the Royal Society of Chemistry.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Yulin Deng\u0027s research highlighted in national magazine"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDeng and his team have developed a low-temperature electrolytic technology that can harvest hydrogen fuel from nearly all types of biomass.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Yulin Deng\u0027s research highlighted in national magazine"}],"uid":"28159","created_gmt":"2016-07-12 15:05:58","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:22:04","author":"Kelly Smith","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-01-26T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2016-01-26T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"552401":{"id":"552401","type":"image","title":"Yulin Deng","body":null,"created":"1468351200","gmt_created":"2016-07-12 19:20:00","changed":"1475895350","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:50","alt":"Yulin Deng","file":{"fid":"94465","name":"yulin_deng_biomass-fuel-cell.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/yulin_deng_biomass-fuel-cell.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/yulin_deng_biomass-fuel-cell.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":191115,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/yulin_deng_biomass-fuel-cell.jpg?itok=RdTtkFdE"}}},"media_ids":["552401"],"groups":[{"id":"372221","name":"Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI)"}],"categories":[{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"},{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKelly B. Smith, \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kelly.smith@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ekelly.smith@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["kelly.smith@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}