Indian Scientists develop unique way to produce 99.99% pure hydrogen fuel; Read on

Indian scientists have devised a novel method for producing 99.99 percent pure hydrogen fuel from a methanol-water combination that requires just one-third of the energy necessary for water electrolysis.

Indian scientists created a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) that uses the ECRM process to produce hydrogen at a low temperature of 25-60 degrees Celsius. According to a senior officer of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the hydrogen produced is 99.99 percent pure and can be used directly in fuel cells to generate 11-13 kilowatts of power.

The basic components of the PEM-based ECMR electrolyser stack were manufactured in-house and integrated with other system components. As per the Ministry, the reactant flow field plate of the electrolyser stack was made of exfoliated graphite material. One of the important breakthroughs in substituting titanium plates, which is generally used in electrolyser unit assembly, has been the use of carbon materials as bipolar plates, which offers a conservative cost-benefit.

Hydrogen is a future fuel that is both environmentally benign and a viable source of long-term energy. Hydrogen is gaining popularity across the world due to its high specific energy value of 40 kWh/kg, which is higher than chemical fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas (12-14 kWh/kg).

While water electrolysis and hydrocarbon reformation, such as methane reformation, are conventional ways for producing hydrogen, Indian scientists at ARRI (International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials) developed the ECMR method, which combines both processes to make hydrogen from a methanol-water combination at room temperature and pressure.

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Though there are other methods for producing hydrogen fuel, the Ministry said that the key benefit of this method is that the electrical energy required to manufacture hydrogen is just 33% of that required in the water electrolysis process.

Second, as the fuel generated by the method is well separated from CO2 by the polymer membrane utilised in the system, it does not require any hydrogen separation or purification procedures.

The ARCI team has also developed a hydrogen-producing electrolysis device with a capacity of up to 5.0 kg/day. The corresponding energy requirement for the electrolyser stack is around 17 kWhr/kg.