In the Lab: Spotlight on Surface Characterisation Activities at Johnson Matthey

Before joining Johnson Matthey, Tuğçe Eralp Erden was a Marie Curie PhD student at the University of Reading, UK, studying model chiral adsorption systems using synchrotron-based structural and spectroscopic techniques (1–5). After completing her PhD, she joined the advanced characterisation department at Johnson Matthey, Sonning Common, UK, where she is currently leading the surface spectroscopy team.

Hydrogen Storage and Transportation Technologies to Enable the Hydrogen Economy: Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers

Reliable storage and transportation of hydrogen at scale is a challenge which needs to be tackled to allow a robust and on-demand hydrogen supply when moving towards a global low carbon hydrogen economy with the aim of meeting net-zero climate goals. Numerous technologies and options are currently being explored for effective hydrogen storage and transportation to facilitate a smooth transition to the hydrogen economy. This paper provides an overview of different hydrogen storage and transportation technologies, focusing in more detail on liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs), its advantages and disadvantages, and future considerations for the optimisation of the LOHC technology.

Analysis of Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier Systems

Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) provide attractive opportunities for hydrogen storage and transportation. In this study, a detailed examination of the most prominent LOHCs is performed, with a focus on their properties and scope for successful process implementation, as well as catalytic materials used for the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation steps. Different properties of each potential LOHC offer significant flexibility within the technology, allowing bespoke hydrogen storage and transportation solutions to be provided. Among different LOHC systems, dibenzyltoluene/perhydro-dibenzyltoluene has been identified as one of the most promising candidates for future deployment in commercial LOHC-based hydrogen storage and transport settings, based on its physical and toxicological properties, process conditions requirements, availability and its moderate cost. PGM-based catalysts have been proven to catalyse both the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation steps for various LOHC systems, though base metal catalysts might have a potential for the technology.

Potential Deployment and Integration of Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier Technology within Different Industries

The deployment of hydrogen as an infrastructure fuel and an energy vector across a range of industries is expected to aid with meeting decarbonisation goals and achieving net zero emissions. For the transition towards a low carbon hydrogen economy, not only the production of hydrogen needs to be addressed, but also its transportation and storage. Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) are an attractive solution for the storage and transportation of hydrogen to allow a reliable and on-demand hydrogen supply, enabling industrial decarbonisation. This work describes the potential deployment and integration of LOHCs within different industries. These include: the transportation sector; steel and cement industries; the use of stored hydrogen to produce fuels and chemicals from flue gases, and a system integration of fuel cells and LOHCs for energy storage.

Johnson Matthey Highlights

Lv:0:53:http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#XMLLiteral<xhtml:span xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">A selection of recent publications by Johnson Matthey R&D staff and collaborators</xhtml:span>

A Comparison of Different Approaches to the Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Useful Products: Part II : More routes to CO2 reduction

In this review, we consider a range of different technological approaches to carbon dioxide conversion, their current status and the molecules which each approach is best suited to making. Part II presents the photochemical, photoelectrochemical, plasma and microbial electrosynthetic routes to CO2 reduction and discusses the technological options together with proposals for future research needs from an industry perspective.

Enrichment of Integrated Steel Plant Process Gases with Implementation of Renewable Energy

The steel industry is one of the most important industry sectors, but also one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters. The process gases produced in an integrated steel plant, blast furnace gas (BFG), basic oxygen furnace gas (BOFG) and coke oven gas (COG), are due to high shares of inert gas (N2) in large part energy poor but also providing a potential carbon source (CO and CO2) for the catalytic hydrogenation to methane by integration of a Power-to-Gas (PtG) plant. Furthermore, by interconnecting a biomass gasification, an additional biogenic H2 source is provided. Three possible implementation scenarios for a PtG and a biomass gasification plant, including mass and energy balances were analysed. The scenarios stipulate a direct conversion of BFG and BOFG resulting in high shares of N2 in the feed gas of the methanation. Laboratory experimental tests have shown that the methanation of BFG and BOFG is technically possible without prior separation of CO2. The methane-rich product gas can be utilised in the steel plant and substitutes for natural gas. The implementation of these renewable energy sources results in a significant reduction of CO2 emissions between 0.81 and 4.6 Mio tCO2,eq/a. However, the scenarios are significantly limited in terms of available electrolysis plant size, renewable electricity and biomass.