CBC News: Inexpensive Electrolysis Catalyst Discovered by Calg Profs: Rust

[Ein~+ein]

Cheaper green energy storage solution invented by Calgary profs
Chat over beer generates lower-cost way to make hydrogen from water


By Emily Chung, CBC News Posted: Mar 29, 2013 1:44 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 29, 2013 4:24 PM ET Read 310 comments310

... a catalyst can speed the reaction up and greatly reduce the amount of extra energy needed. But up until now, water electrolysis catalysts have been made of crystals containing rare, expensive toxic metals such as ruthenium and iridium.

Berlinguette and Trudel have invented a way to make catalysts that perform just as well as those expensive catalysts but cost 1,000 times less. The new process also allows catalysts to be made from relatively non-toxic metal compounds such as iron oxide, better known as rust.

"Our method effectively translates to every metal in the periodic table," Berlinguette said.

And because the new process is much more customizable than existing methods for making this type of catalyst, the recipe can be tweaked to include any combination of metals in any proportions to get the best possible performance. That means it may be possible to find a recipe that far outperforms existing, expensive catalysts.

The new catalysts and the process to make them are completely different from existing water electrolysis catalysts because they weren't originally intended to be used as catalysts. Trudel was studying them because he was interested in their magnetic properties. One day, he happened to be hanging out after work with Berlinguette, who was researching a different kind of catalyst.
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Globe & Mail (Canada's National daily) coverage
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@Jon Abel: Now you see what I mean by energy currency and not needing to exceed COP 1.0. I'm interested in how Aaron responds to this given there's no mention of nitrogen, just metal.

[Ein~+ein]

Cheaper green energy storage solution invented by Calgary profs
Chat over beer generates lower-cost way to make hydrogen from water


By Emily Chung, CBC News Posted: Mar 29, 2013 1:44 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 29, 2013 4:24 PM ET Read 310 comments310

... a catalyst can speed the reaction up and greatly reduce the amount of extra energy needed. But up until now, water electrolysis catalysts have been made of crystals containing rare, expensive toxic metals such as ruthenium and iridium.

Berlinguette and Trudel have invented a way to make catalysts that perform just as well as those expensive catalysts but cost 1,000 times less. The new process also allows catalysts to be made from relatively non-toxic metal compounds such as iron oxide, better known as rust.



"Our method effectively translates to every metal in the periodic table," Berlinguette said.

And because the new process is much more customizable than existing methods for making this type of catalyst, the recipe can be tweaked to include any combination of metals in any proportions to get the best possible performance. That means it may be possible to find a recipe that far outperforms existing, expensive catalysts.

The new catalysts and the process to make them are completely different from existing water electrolysis catalysts because they weren't originally intended to be used as catalysts. Trudel was studying them because he was interested in their magnetic properties. One day, he happened to be hanging out after work with Berlinguette, who was researching a different kind of catalyst.

"Truthfully, we were just chatting over a beer and [I] said 'Why don't we take your materials and see if they work as catalysts?'" Berlinguette recalled. "And they worked."

Traditional methods for making water electrolysis catalysts involve sticking an electrode into a solution containing the metal, causing crystals called metal oxides to deposit on the electrode. Mixtures of different metals don’t work, Berlinguette said, because some of them deposit on the electrode more quickly than others, forming separate layers rather than a uniform mixture that would make for a useful mixed metal catalyst.

The new method involves putting the metals in a scaffold of light-sensitive, non-metallic, carbon-based molecules and dissolving them in a solution. Different metals can be dissolved in the same solution and mixed evenly. The electrode is dipped in the solution and the solvent is allowed to evaporate, causing the catalyst-containing molecules to stick to it. The researchers then shine a light on the electrode, breaking down the light-sensitive scaffold and leaving behind just the evenly distributed metal oxides.

These metal oxides aren't crystals like traditional electrolysis catalysts, but "amorphous" materials with a less organized structure and gaps called "defects." The researchers think that is what makes them more reactive and therefore better catalysts.

According to the University of Calgary, FireWater Fuel Corp. plans to have a commercial electrolyzer available by 2014 and a home version on the market a year later.
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Globe & Mail (Canada's National daily) coverage
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@Jon Abel: Now you see what I mean by energy currency and not needing to exceed COP 1.0. I'm interested in how Aaron responds to this given there's no mention of nitrogen, just metal.

[Ein~+ein]

The story's been picked up internationally, and by a number of alt energy websites according to a Google News search which generated 261 hits for the discrete terms: trudel+berlinguette+electrolysis+calgary

I'm inclined to think there's something legitimate here. The clincher for me is that PESN.com hasn't picked it up and put it on their Top 10 Closest-to-Market list along with the likes of Keshe, Steorn and Rossi since the article does state:

According to the University of Calgary, FireWater Fuel Corp. plans to have a commercial electrolyzer available by 2014 and a home version on the market a year later.

However, a little known academic journal by the name of Science has published their findings, but in the internet age, who cares about academia?:

Published Online March 28 2013
< Science Express Index
Read Full Text to Comment (0)

Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1233638
REPORT
Photochemical Route for Accessing Amorphous Metal Oxide Materials for Water Oxidation Catalysis
Rodney D. L. Smith, Mathieu S. Prévot, Randal D. Fagan, Zhipan Zhang, Pavel A. Sedach, Man Kit Jack Siu, Simon Trudel*, Curtis P. Berlinguette*
+ Author Affiliations

Department of Chemistry and Centre for Advanced Solar Materials, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
↵*Corresponding author. E-mail: trudels@ucalgary.ca (S.T.); cberling@ucalgary.ca (C.P.B.)
ABSTRACT
Large-scale electrolysis of water for hydrogen generation requires better catalysts to lower the kinetic barriers associated with the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). While most OER catalysts are based on crystalline mixed-metal oxides, high activities can also be achieved with amorphous phases. Methods for producing amorphous materials, however, are not typically amenable to mixed-metal compositions. We demonstrate that a low-temperature process, photochemical metal-organic deposition, can produce amorphous mixed-metal oxide films for OER catalysis. The films contain a homogeneous distribution of metals with compositions that can be accurately controlled. The catalytic properties of amorphous iron oxide prepared with this technique are superior to hematite, while those of a-Fe100-y-zCoyNizOx are comparable to noble metal oxide catalysts currently used in commercial electrolyzers.

[Ein~+ein]

According to the MIT Technology Review's coverage of the story:

FireWater Fuel intends to develop an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen for energy storage at wind farms. It intends to create a commercial prototype of a freezer-size electrolyzer that would convert a few liters of water a day to electricity for consumers by 2015

This got me wondering what the actual water-to-gasoline hydrogen ratio is as I've discussed elsewhere. If 1 kg of H2 holds three times the energy of gasoline (i.e., 1 gallon of gasoline = 1 kilogram of H2) and water by mass is 11.1% hydrogen, you'd need more than twice as much water or 2.3 gallons to get the hydrogen equivalent of gasoline and at 101.325 kPa, (uncompressed--sea level pressure) you'd need a 357.37 cu ft storage tank.

Is this too good to be true? Here's the claim made by FireWater:

The first generation of the FFC technology demonstrated that a cheap nanoscaled form of catalyst material can help drive the production of hydrogen fuels with little energy input. The performance of the second-generation FFC technology, FFCat™, already outperforms the industry benchmark despite costing only a fraction of the price and consisting of environmentally benign materials.

No one's yet challenged them on their bold assertion but I guess time will tell. At least they've provide to the press a disclaimer regarding their forward-looking statements. Who else in this field does that before being market ready?