Thermal catalytic reforming for hydrogen production with zero CO <sub>2</sub> emission
Carbon-neutral hydrogen production is of key importance for the chemical industry of the future. We demonstrate a new thermal catalytic route for the partial reforming of ethanol into hydrogen and acetic acid with near-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This reaction is enabled by a catalyst containing a high density of atomic Pt<sub>1</sub> and Ir<sub>1</sub> species supported on a reactive alpha-molybdenum carbide substrate, achieving a hydrogen production rate of 331.3 millimoles of hydrogen per gram catalyst per hour and an acetic acid selectivity of 84.5% at 270°C, and is therefore more energy-efficient compared with standard reforming. Techno-economic analysis of partial ethanol reforming demonstrates the potential profitability for operation at an industrial scale, presenting the opportunity to produce hydrogen and acetic acid with a substantially reduced carbon dioxide footprint.
Authors
- Graham J. Hutchings (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8885-1560)
- Hiroyuki Asakura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6451-4738)
- Mi Peng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7713-4398)
- Aowen Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0975-1068)
- Ding Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3341-2998)
- Jin Gen Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0272-1031)
- Jihan Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8069-0356)
- Yuzhen Ge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2552-376X)
- Wu Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6803-1095)
- Zhiheng Xie
- Hui Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1719-4345)
- Rui Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1782-7642)
- Zhi Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8973-6561)
- Jie Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1472-198X)
- Jie Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9976-3942)
- Qiaolin Yu
- Qi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2698-862X)
Institutions
- Sinopec (China) (CN)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Inner Mongolia University (CN)
- ShanghaiTech University (CN)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (CN)
- CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Cardiff Metropolitan University (GB)
- Kindai University (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-02-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adt0682
- Citations
- 69
- Primary Topic
- Catalysts for Methane Reforming
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 26.84