Credit: Arne Olivier
Posted on 05/01/2015 8:58:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
Can cars run on formic acid? They just might one day, after what physical chemist Georgy Filonenko discovered in his dissertation. He developed a catalyst in which hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) can form formic acid in no time, faster than had ever been measured before. And the reverse reaction is just as quick. It seems to be the start of a hydrogen battery for use in hydrogen cars of the future, for example. He received his PhD degree yesterday, cum laude.
Hydrogen is one of the foremost candidates in the running towards becoming the energy carrier of the future. It's the world's most common element, and no harmful substances are released upon combustion. Unfortunately, storing pure hydrogen is an issue: getting enough hydrogen in a fuel tank requires several hundred bars of pressure. These practical concerns impede the use of hydrogen as a fuel for cars or buses.
It's been known for several years that hydrogen and CO2 can be combined to form liquid formic acid, which enables us to store much more hydrogen in the same volume. Up until recently, the bottleneck was the time it took for hydrogen to be absorbed and released again by the CO2, and how to control the process. During experiments, two bachelor students of Chemical Engineering who worked under the supervision of Georgy Filonenko accidentally stumbled upon a catalyst that speeded up the reaction immensely: a complex of an organic molecule and the noble metal ruthenium.
Ten times faster than ever before
Filonenko then managed to optimize the reaction, and so found a way to realize a reaction speed that was ten times higher than the fastest known system in the world, which also happens to require a much more expensive catalyst. "What's extraordinary, is that the reaction can be reversed easily as well", says Filonenko. "At 65 degrees, the formic acid is stable, but heating it to 90 degrees releases the hydrogen fast."
Storage density
The reaction speed and its stability make formic acid a potential candidate for hydrogen batteries in cars, for example. "But we must increase storage density first", says Evgeny Pidko. He is Filonenko's supervisor and the one who was awarded the Veni grant to finance this research project. "So we're studying other molecules that can store hydrogen, like methanol. The initial goal of our research was to gather fundamental information, but then suddenly we found these unexpected results."
More information: "On the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 and carboxylic acid esters." www.kncv.nl/on-the-catalytic-hydrogenation-of-co2-and.178512.lynkx
Credit: Arne Olivier
ping!...........
Good work, but the problem with all these fuel cells is the life of the catalyst. Fuel cells are the solution of the future — and have been for the last 50 years!
And here I thought gas turbines were the wave of the future.
“They MIGHT...ONE DAY”.
Nothing like a little certitude.
With a greater loss in efficiency than using the Natural Gas as fuel directly.
Excellent! Formic Acid!
Hopefully we can get rid of the vibrating bird killing Wind Farms and replace them with Ant Farms! A marketable energy commodity that should encourage the harvesting of the crazy ants and fire ants invading the southwest! (Accessible without drilling half way through the earths mantle!)
For a change a rare element that is not controlled exclusively by the Chinese.
“Ruthenium is found as the free metal, sometimes associated with platinum, osmium and iridium, in North and South America, and in South Africa. There are few ores. Ruthenium is also associated with nickel and deposits (from which it is recovered commercially.”
Interesting. We also have the new Aluminum/ graphine battery and whatever Elon Musk came out with today. I wonder if Mr. Musk has hired Mr. Filonenko yet?
I like these articles. Thanks for posting!
You can run a car on ants???
Who knew!?
I think Bob Dylan wrote that: the ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind... (not to be confused with windmills, which suck).
We gots lots of Fire Ants and Crazy Ants, so were set.................
Ah, someone spilled their Monster energy drink.
Not sure, but I think someone tried it before back in the 1970s . . .
Hydrogen, isn’t that what KITT (from “Knight Rider”) ran on? One of my favourite episodes was about Michael and KITT going into a race with cars competing in a “best alternative fuel” type of contest.
Student researcher: Dude!....I dropped my blunt! .......have you seen it??.....
“It seems to be the start of a hydrogen battery for use in hydrogen cars of the future, for example. He received his PhD degree yesterday, cum laude. “
Oh great another nice in theory who the heck knows if it can scale or be manufactured moment
Caution...Hillary might just sell it to Putin...
If hydrogen was good enough for the Hindenburg and the bomb, it’s good enough for me.
What is the ‘carbon footprint’ to develop and then run this technology? Is it greater than what is already available?
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