Towards an efficient liquid organic hydrogen carrier fuel cell concept

Sievi G, Geburtig D, Skeledzic T, Bösmann A, Preuster P, Brummel O, Waidhas F, Montero MA, Khanipourmehrin P, Katsounaros I, Libuda J, Mayrhofer K, Wasserscheid P (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Energy and Environmental Science Royal Society of Chemistry

Book Volume: 12

Pages Range: 2305-2314

Journal Issue: 7

DOI: 10.1039/c9ee01324e

Abstract

The high temperature required for hydrogen release from Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) systems has been considered in the past as the main drawback of this otherwise highly attractive and fully infrastructure-compatible form of chemical hydrogen storage. According to the state-of-the art, the production of electrical energy from LOHC-bound hydrogen, e.g. from perhydro-dibenzyltoluene (H18-DBT), requires provision of the dehydrogenation enthalpy (e.g. 65 kJ mol-1 (H2) for H18-DBT) at a temperature level of 300 °C followed by purification of the released hydrogen for subsequent fuel cell operation. Here, we demonstrate that a combination of a heterogeneously catalysed transfer hydrogenation from H18-DBT to acetone and fuel cell operation with the resulting 2-propanol as a fuel, allows for an electrification of LOHC-bound hydrogen in high efficiency (>50%) and at surprisingly mild conditions (temperatures below 200 °C). Most importantly, our proposed new sequence does not require an external heat input as the transfer hydrogenation from H18-DBT to acetone is almost thermoneutral. In the PEMFC operation with 2-propanol, the endothermal proton release at the anode is compensated by the exothermic formation of water. Ideally the proposed sequence does not form and consume molecular H2 at any point which adds a very appealing safety feature to this way of producing electricity from LOHC-bound hydrogen, e.g. for applications on mobile platforms.

Authors with CRIS profile

Gabriel Sievi Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik Denise Geburtig Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik Tanja Skeledzic Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik Andreas Bösmann Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik Patrick Preuster Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik Olaf Brummel Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II Fabian Waidhas Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II Peyman Khanipourmehrin Lehrstuhl für Elektrokatalyse (HIERN) Ioannis Katsounaros Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik Jörg Libuda Professur für Physikalische Chemie Karl Mayrhofer Lehrstuhl für Elektrokatalyse (HIERN) Peter Wasserscheid Lehrstuhl für Chemische Reaktionstechnik

Involved external institutions

National University of the Littoral / Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL) AR Argentina (AR)

How to cite

APA:

Sievi, G., Geburtig, D., Skeledzic, T., Bösmann, A., Preuster, P., Brummel, O.,... Wasserscheid, P. (2019). Towards an efficient liquid organic hydrogen carrier fuel cell concept. Energy and Environmental Science, 12(7), 2305-2314. https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9ee01324e

MLA:

Sievi, Gabriel, et al. "Towards an efficient liquid organic hydrogen carrier fuel cell concept." Energy and Environmental Science 12.7 (2019): 2305-2314.

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