Category: R&D

President of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association states the case for leveraging fuel cells to enhance emergency response efforts

December 31, 2019 | Max Melnick

In Washington D.C., Morry Markowitz, President of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association, wrote for openaccessgovernment.org where he provided use cases that showed how reliable fuel-cell power generation really is, and how necessary it is for secure backup power generation. Today, there are more than 8,500 fuel cell systems installed for backup power across […]

Brown Researchers discover that catalysis researchers were studying the wrong mechanism in determining hydrogen production potential

December 24, 2019 | Max Melnick

In Rhode Island, a team at Brown University has investigated the mechanism that makes platinum such a favorable catalyst for fuel cells, and they discovered that the mechanism we typically focus on for measuring catalytic ability is in fact not what makes platinum so effective. Scientists originally believed that the binding energy of hydrogen on […]

Researchers in Singapore develop low-cost photocatalyst to break down waste plastic into useful chemicals and fuels

December 17, 2019 | Max Melnick

In Singapore, ScienceDaily reports that researchers at the Nanyang Technological University have discovered a solar-powered process that can turn plastic into valuable chemicals, and the researchers hope that this discovery will lead to the generation of renewable hydrogen from plastic waste. The research team mixed their catalysts—made from vanadium, commonly used in steel alloys for […]

Researchers at the Curtin Institute for Functional Molecules and Interfaces use solar to create single layer nanosheets from methanol

December 10, 2019 | Max Melnick

In Australia, Lead researcher and ARC DECRA Fellow Dr Guohua Jia, from Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences and the Curtin Institute for Functional Molecules and Interfaces, has successfully used solar to break down methanol to release renewable hydrogen, one of the cleanest renewable energy carriers naturally available. Today, the current process of extracting hydrogen from […]

Sandia National Lab along with DOE and Hydrogen Consortium lower the bar for hydrogen-powered technology, in part because of machine learning

December 3, 2019 | Max Melnick

In California, the DOE, along with the Hydrogen Materials Advanced Research Consortium and Sandia National Lab, have begun collaborating to develop more advanced storage materials in order to meet federal energy density requirements set by the DOE for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The group identified strategies and did foundational research to increase the storage capacity of […]

Illinois Researchers enhance understanding of the structure and composition of hydrogenase, the enzyme responsible for the natural production and consumption of hydrogen

November 26, 2019 | Max Melnick

In Illinois, researchers from the University of Illinois, UC Davis, and Oregon Health and Science University have reached a major milestone in establishing a pathway for the biological synthesis of hydrogen, a far more efficient method than current human-made processes, according to the study’s co-author Thomas Rauchfuss. Hydrogenase— the enzyme responsible for the natural production […]

Researchers in the Netherlands develop a novel structure for a platinum-nickel alloy catalyst that is 20X more effective than current platinum catalysts

November 19, 2019 | Max Melnick

In the Netherlands, researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology— alongside researchers from China, Singapore, and Japan— have successfully developed a nickel and platinum catalyst with 20X higher activity than the platinum equivalent. The researchers oriented the alloy into hollow nanocages that drastically increase the surface area of the catalyst, and therefore its electrical production potential. […]

Machine Learning opening doors for researchers, it recognizes past mistakes and enhances ability to design ideal catalysts

November 12, 2019 | Max Melnick

In Ireland, researchers at Trinity College were able to use a machine-learning algorithm to determine that the activity of some of the more reactive catalysts has been historically underestimated, meaning the “overpotential” hurdle feared by many electrocatalysis researchers is actually more surmountable than previously thought. The team now intends on using machine learning supercomputers to […]

Computer simulations leveraged at UCLA in order to understand experimental data reviewing cheaper catalyst production methods

November 5, 2019 | Max Melnick

In California, material scientists at UCLA and Johns Hopkins University have successfully leveraged computer simulations to better understand experimental data that was conducted to figure out how to enhance the long-term effectiveness of fuel-cells. Platinum is an expensive catalyst and has an incredible impact on the price of fuel-cell powertrains. The researchers found that introducing […]

Japanese researchers discover a novel method of hydrogen storage via two-dimensional nanosheets

October 29, 2019 | Max Melnick

In Japan, a team of researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have found a method for producing hydrogen boride nanosheets— which they believe will become the basis of a safe, lightweight, and high-capacity hydrogen storage tank. Safe and logistically favorable hydrogen storage has been a major challenge in deploying the technology at scale. Hydrogen— […]