Singapore researchers simulate biomass-to-hydrogen production using catalysts

In Singapore, experimental analysis and computer simulations reveal new insights into the process by which ethanol produced from waste biomass can be converted into hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. These insights should aid the design of more efficient catalysts for hydrogen production.

Hydrogen gas is an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. Today, through a process known as steam reforming, hydrogen is obtained by using steam to break up a hydrocarbon — most commonly, methane in natural gas.  However, ethanol produced by fermenting waste biomass is potentially a cleaner starting material for this process.

However, despite having been extensively studied in recent years, steam reforming of ethanol is currently too inefficient to produce hydrogen on an industrial scale. This stems partly from the complexity of its reaction, which can yield a range of different products. “Our lack of understanding of the detailed reaction mechanism hinders further improvement of a catalyst for the reaction,” explains Jia Zhang of the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore. “The reaction was a black box before we started exploring it.”