Key words :
future energies,
future energies
,carbon dioxide
,water vapor
,formic acid
,hydrogen powered fuel cells
,energy
Power From Formic Acid
20 May, 2008 11:05 am
One of the central challenges of our time is the supply of enough environmentally friendly and resource-efficient energy to our society.
Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are the cleanest source of energy because they only produce one type of exhaust gas: water vapor. However, it is not yet practicable to transport and store hydrogen, which is a gas and cannot be pumped into a tank as easily as gasoline. Storage systems currently in use are large and heavy, expensive, and complex. It would thus be better to couple the fuel cell directly to a hydrogen-producing material, which would supply the fuel cell on demand. Aside from methane and methanol, renewable resources such as biomass and its fermentation products (e.g. bioethanol) are the most promising starting materials for this technology. The serious disadvantage is that their conversion only works at temperatures above 200 °C, which consumes a significant portion of the energy produced.
The researchers from Rostock have now developed a feasible process for the on-demand release of hydrogen; they produce hydrogen from formic acid (HCO2H). In the presence of an amine (e.g. N,N-dimethylhexylamine) and with a suitable catalyst (e.g. the commercially available ruthenium phosphine complex [RuCl2(PPH3)2]), formic acid is selectively converted into carbon dioxide and hydrogen at room temperature. A simple activated charcoal filter is enough to purify the hydrogen gas for use in a fuel cell. The use of formic acid for “hydrogen storage” allows the advantages of established hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell technology to be combined with those of liquid fuels. Formic acid is nontoxic and easy to store. Because formic acid can be generated catalytically from CO2 and biomass-derived hydrogen, the cycle is CO2 neutral in principle.
Will we be replacing gasoline with formic acid in the future? It is not inconceivable, but initial applications requiring smaller amounts of energy are more probable. For the use of fuel cells in portable electrical devices, this nascent formic acid technology opens up new possibilities in the short term.
Reference:
"Controlled generation of hydrogen from formic acid amine adducts at room temperature and application in H2/O2 fuel cells", Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2008, 47, No. 21, 3962–3965.
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This article is a small report on an already published article that should be known from a large audience.
I am not qualified to evaluate the chemistry which I accept at face value. My concern is with the energetics. How much energy is necessary to produce the formic acid? How much energy is needed to produce the catalyst, especially that necessary to extract and refine ruthenium for the catalyst? The chemistry may very well be sound and be an important advance. But are the energetics such as to make it practical on a large scale? The researchers properly defer this question.
This is an interesting article. However, since he refers to Angewandte Chemie, the procedure alluded to is at the research stage. Putting this into practice in the short-order required in the event of peak oil is an impossibility. So, I recommend that you publish it, but then I will write a response to the latter effect!
Regards,
Chris Rhodes (Professor).
Perhaps that is really why such projects are being funded by governments - to avoid the mass panic that would ensue if populations actually understood the mess we are in.
Incidentally, formic acid is one of the nastiest materials I ever worked with in my days as a research chemist. I doubt we would want billions of tons of it around to underpin a world economy.
Chris Rhodes (Professor).