INSPIRATION
The hydrogen economy depends not only on hydrogen but also on chemical intermediaries of the fuel that are useful in their own capacities. e-Fuels, such as e-methanol, produce low carbon emissions, originate from hydrogen, and are directly integrable into internal combustion (IC) engines.
Methanol and methane are other chemicals that are by-products of hydrogen production and apply hydrogen back into circulation. Especially critical in terms of decarbonization is the conversion of waste to hydrogen. Nowadays, startups achieve this through gasification, pyrolysis, fermentation, and reforming processes. Waste-to-hydrogen solutions aim to solve the waste crisis while producing hydrogen with zero or low carbon emissions.
US-based startup Aquaneers produces methanol from hydrogen using a novel nanomaterial platform. The platform,Plasmonic Ribbon, comprises metallic nanorod arrays engineered on the surface of the flexible glass using roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques. Methanol is produced from the
reaction of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. When the surface of the Plasmonic Ribbon is catalytically tailored for this reaction, the plasmonic interaction will lower the activation energy and allow chemical synthesis to proceed more efficiently. This leads to reductions in energy consumption costs and subsequently – for production of other methanol-based industrial products.
Indian startup Ossus Biorenewables produces biohydrogen from wastewater. The startup’s device, OB HYDRACEL, is a self-powered solution that produces hydrogen from effluents at industrial sites. It is a retrofittable device, with its own power generator, designed to resemble pipelines, which can be directly attached to effluent pipelines in factories and industrial venues. The solution enables both the purification of wastewater and the production of hydrogen, stored or used for industrial applications.
