Hydrogen has long been hailed as a key fuel for a low-carbon future, capable of powering everything from heavy industry to transportation without producing carbon emissions at the point of use. Yet there is a major contradiction at the heart of today’s hydrogen economy. Despite its clean reputation, around 95% of hydrogen is still produced using fossil fuels, often through energy-intensive processes that generate significant carbon dioxide emissions.
Now, researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a new low-temperature method for producing hydrogen that could make the fuel cheaper, cleaner, and easier to generate close to where it is needed.
Their approach uses a perovskite catalyst to split water into hydrogen and oxygen at far lower temperatures than conventional thermochemical methods, potentially allowing industrial waste heat from sectors such as steel, cement, glass, and chemicals to power local hydrogen production.
Thermochemical water splitting has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional hydrogen production because it avoids direct reliance on fossil fuels. In these systems, catalysts repeatedly absorb and release oxygen while separating water into hydrogen and oxygen. However, existing catalysts typically require temperatures of 700 to 1000 °C for water splitting and as much as 1300 to 1500 °C for regeneration between cycles, limiting their practicality and efficiency.
A team led by Professor Yulong Ding from the University’s School of Chemical Engineering has shown that this temperature requirement can be reduced by 500 °C using a perovskite catalyst.
Their study, published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, found that the catalyst can generate substantial hydrogen yields at temperatures of 150 to 500 °C and be regenerated at 700 to 1000 °C.\
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