Coating-Integrated Joule Heating Architecture for Energy-Efficient Hydrogen Release from Chemical Carriers

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Renewable Energy

Background:

• Hydrogen carriers are crucial for storing and transporting renewable energy, but hydrogen release is often inefficient.
• Endothermic reactions and heat losses during hydrogen release create significant energy penalties.
• Current methods face limitations in energy coupling and catalyst bed conductivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an improved energy coupling method for hydrogen release reactors.
• To present a coating-integrated Joule heating architecture for efficient hydrogen production.
• To demonstrate the versatility of the platform for various hydrogen carriers.

Main Methods:

• A porous silicon carbide skeleton was used as a universal electrothermal converter.
• Catalysts were directly coated onto the silicon carbide surface, decoupling heat generation from catalysis.
• Joule heating was applied to ammonia decomposition and liquid organic hydrogen carrier dehydrogenation.

Main Results:

• The Ru/CeO₂-coated reactor achieved a hydrogen production rate of 5.6 mol_H2 g_cat^-1 h^-1 with 15.5 kWh kg_H2^-1 energy consumption.
• The Pt/CeO₂-coated reactor achieved 86.6% cyclohexane conversion at 5.5 W, comparable to conventional thermal catalysis.
• Thermal profiling provided insights into heat distribution and gas temperature evolution, aiding reactor design.

Conclusions:

• The coating-integrated electrothermal platform offers a general and scalable approach for energy-efficient hydrogen release.
• This technology significantly reduces energy penalties associated with hydrogen release from carriers.
• The platform demonstrates compatibility with diverse hydrogen-release chemistries, including ammonia and liquid organic hydrogen carriers.