![](images/Logos/oilprice-logo%20copy.jpg)
Hydrogen Economy Gets A Boost With New Low-Cost
Catalyst
By
Brian Westenhaus
28 June 2023
-
A research team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne
National Laboratory has developed a cost-effective catalyst for the
electrolysis process, which generates clean hydrogen from water.
-
The new catalyst, primarily composed of cobalt, a much cheaper element
than iridium traditionally used, outperformed competitors' catalysts
in terms of performance and durability under industrial operating
conditions.
-
The development aids the DOE's Hydrogen Energy Earthshot initiative,
aiming to lower the cost of green hydrogen production to $1 per
kilogram in a decade.
![](images/images_06_30_2023/2023-06-28_pq6tnbtrea.jpg)
An Argonne National Laboratory team has developed
a new catalyst composed of elements abundant in the Earth. It could
make possible the low-cost and energy-efficient production of hydrogen
for use in transportation and industrial applications.
The reporting paper for the research has been published in Science.
Hydrogen can power vehicles while emitting nothing but water. Hydrogen
is also an important chemical for many industrial processes, most
notably in steel making and ammonia production. Using cleaner hydrogen
is highly desirable in those industries.
A multi-institutional team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s
(DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has developed a low-cost catalyst
for a process that yields clean hydrogen from water. Other
contributors include DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as Giner Inc.
“A process called electrolysis produces hydrogen and oxygen from water
and has been around for more than a century,” said Di-Jia Liu, senior
chemist at Argonne. He also holds a joint appointment in the Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago.
Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers represent a new
generation of technology for this process. They can split water into
hydrogen and oxygen with higher efficiency at near room temperature.
The reduced energy demand makes them an ideal choice for producing
clean hydrogen by using renewable but intermittent sources, such as
solar and wind.
This electrolyzer runs with separate catalysts for each of its
electrodes (cathode and anode). The cathode catalyst yields hydrogen,
while the anode catalyst forms oxygen. A problem is that the anode
catalyst uses iridium, which has a current market price of around
$5,000 per ounce. The lack of supply and high cost of iridium pose a
major barrier for widespread adoption of PEM electrolyzers.
The main ingredient in the new catalyst is
cobalt, which is substantially cheaper than iridium. “We sought to
develop a low-cost anode catalyst in a PEM electrolyzer that generates
hydrogen at high throughput while consuming minimal energy,” Liu said.
“By using the cobalt-based catalyst prepared by our method, one could
remove the main bottleneck of cost to producing clean hydrogen in an
electrolyzer.”
Giner Inc., a leading research and development company working toward
commercialization of electrolyzers and fuel cells, evaluated the new
catalyst using its PEM electrolyzer test stations under industrial
operating conditions. The performance and durability far exceeded that
of competitors’ catalysts.
Important to further advancing the catalyst performance is
understanding the reaction mechanism at the atomic scale under
electrolyzer operating conditions. The team deciphered critical
structural changes that occur in the catalyst under operating
conditions by using X-ray analyses at the Advanced Photon Source (APS)
at Argonne. They also identified key catalyst features using electron
microscopy at Sandia Labs and at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale
Materials (CNM). The APS and CNM are both DOE Office of Science user
facilities.
“We imaged the atomic structure on the surface of the new catalyst at
various stages of preparation,” said Jianguo Wen, an Argonne materials
scientist.
In addition, computational modeling at Berkeley Lab revealed important
insights into the catalyst’s durability under reaction conditions.
The team’s achievement is a step forward in DOE’s Hydrogen Energy
Earthshot initiative, which mimics the U.S. space program’s “Moon
Shot” of the 1960s. Its ambitious goal is to lower the cost for green
hydrogen production to one dollar per kilogram in a decade. Production
of green hydrogen at that cost could reshape the nation’s economy.
Applications include the electric grid, manufacturing, transportation
and residential and commercial heating.
“More generally, our results establish a promising path forward in
replacing catalysts made from expensive precious metals with elements
that are much less expensive and more abundant,” Liu noted.
In addition to Liu, Argonne authors are Lina Chong (now at Shanghai
Jiao Tong University), Jianguo Wen, Haiping Xu, A. Jeremy Kropf,
Wenqian Xu and Xiao-Min Lin. Authors from Berkeley Lab include Guoping
Gao, Haixia Li and Ling-Wang Wang. The author from Sandia Labs is
Joshua D. Sugar. Contributors Zach Green and Hui Xu are from Giner
Inc.
This looks like well thought out work. Hydrogen
production that relies on precious rare earth elements hasn’t much of
a future in the mass markets.
For hydrogen to actually get a market share that is real vs.
politically forced, this kind of technology has to mature into
commercial scale.
By Brian Westenhaus via New Energy and Fuel
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
exactrix@exactrix.com
|