Hydrofuel and University of Toronto group receiving funding for golden hydrogen research
by CM staff
New process discovered that uses light to convert hydrogen carriers into low-cost golden hydrogen and other products.
Photo: CNW Group/Hydrofuel Canada Inc.
MISSISSAUGA — Hydrofuel Canada Inc., a company engaged in the production and delivery of Green Ammonia and Hydrogen has entered into a $1 million dollar, two year “Opto-Chemical Engineering of High Efficiency and Low-Cost Photocatalysts and Photoreactors for Photoreforming Hydrogen Carriers” licensing and cooperation agreement with University of Toronto’s (UofT) Solar Fuels Group (SFG).
The partnership between SFG and Hydrofuel brings a shift to the science and technology of generating hydrogen from hydrogen carriers. Instead of using non-renewable heat or electricity the team utilizes light as the sole energy source thereby making the hydrogen the greenest form possible, called golden hydrogen. The central objective of the partnership is to engineer optically and chemically, photocatalysts and photoreactors with the highest efficiency and lowest cost, scalability and durability, for photo-reforming hydrogen carriers to golden hydrogen.
Patent applications have been filed for six initial Opto-Chemical Engineering based technologies:
- Photochemical reforming of hydrogen vectors
- Single atom photochemical reforming of hydrogen vectors
- Photochemical reverse Boudouard process
- Photochemical reforming of ethane to ethene and hydrogen
- Photoreforming of hydrogen carrier polymers
- Single atom photochemical reforming of polymers
The two year $1 million dollar funding commitment from Hydrofuel will allow the Solar Fuels Group to retain six Post Doctoral and Doctoral candidates to continue their research to identify the optimum photocatalysts and photoreactors for photo reforming a range of hydrogen carriers to golden hydrogen. The funding will also enable them to scale up the science to a practical technology toward commercialization.
