Energy

Light-powered catalyst makes profitable hydrogen from stinky waste gas

When excited by visible light, gold nanoparticles in a new silicon dioxide catalyst powder fire out high-powered electrons that efficiently split toxic hydrogen sulfide into pure sulfur and hydrogen gas
Rice University
When excited by visible light, gold nanoparticles in a new silicon dioxide catalyst powder fire out high-powered electrons that efficiently split toxic hydrogen sulfide into pure sulfur and hydrogen gas
Rice University

Hydrogen sulfide famously stinks like rotten eggs, and contributes that eye-watering, low-hanging punch to the bouquet of the very worst farts. It's also toxic, corrosive, flammable and produced in large amounts as an expensive-to-treat by-product at petroleum refineries. Now, researchers have found an easy, profitable way to turn it into hydrogen.

The current method for dealing with this stuff – an unavoidable waste product when you're refining oil or natural gas – is to heat it up with air to between 800-1,100 °C (1,470-2,000 °F), then run it through a series of condensers, reheaters and catalytic reactors to convert it into sulfur and water in what's known as the Claus Process. The sulfur can be sold on, but the high temperatures involved make this an energy-hungry process.

Now, researchers at Rice University say they've found a way to pretty much eliminate that energy use and its associated emissions, while still recovering the sulfur and capturing useful hydrogen gas to boot.

The new process uses a nano-engineered silicon dioxide powder catalyst, each grain speckled with nanoparticles of gold just billionths of a meter wide. These gold particles respond strongly to a specific wavelength of visible light, shooting out short-lived electrons known as "hot carriers," which carry enough energy to split H2S molecules efficiently into H2 and S for separate capture.

The process can be entirely powered by sunlight, and thus more or less free for a refinery in terms of operating costs where sunlight is available. But according to the research team, it works just fine with artificial light as well, and could end up being so cheap and efficient that you could roll it out with its own low-powered LED lighting and harvest hydrogen and sulfur while cleaning up sewer gas underground.

“Hydrogen sulfide emissions can result in hefty fines for industry, but remediation is also very expensive,” said Naomi Halas, lead author on the study and co-founder of Syzygy Plasmonics, which has licensed the new technology for commercialization. “The phrase ‘game-changer’ is overused, but in this case, it applies. Implementing plasmonic photocatalysis should be far less expensive than traditional remediation, and it has the added potential of transforming a costly burden into an increasingly valuable commodity.”

While this method should actually reduce carbon emissions due to the significant energy use it obviates in the refining process, it seems unlikely that the resulting hydrogen will meet the criteria for "green" classification, since at the end of the day it's coming from fossil fuel.

The study is available in the journal ACS Energy Letters.

Source: Rice University

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3 comments
michael_dowling
H2 is not the ideal way to store energy,either renewable or other. It is difficult to store and transport,as it tends to easily leak from tanks and gas lines. Even when put to use in fuel cells,it is only about 35% efficient from well to wheel. It would be much better to convert it to ammonia,which is far easier to deal with.
jerryd
Sounds interesting to get rid of the pollution but soon, way down in 10 yrs and little in 15 yrs as RE so cheap, there will be no need for FF refining, killing much of it's market.
And it'll happen much faster than most think as next yr EVs will cost the same to build as FF cars, trucks, just more desirable. And EVs cost 20% to run, are rolling power stations that will buy power at low prices then sell it on demand for income, run a home for days if needed as mine recent did 4 days during hurricane Ian, will be hard to compete with.
Not sure what an energy waster H2 is doing in this when such massive EV storage at 95% efficiency vs 25% H2 back to power. Anything is better efficiency, cost wise than H2. H2 is mostly a way for FF companies to keep their hand in our pockets but those days are coming to an end as energy production moves back to the people.
TechGazer
I'd count it as 'green' if it's a waste product from another process that's going to occur anyway. If they start drilling wells for fossil H2S or re-opening old petroleum wells for the H2S, that's a different situation.

Re: michael_dowling's comment: H2 is not just an energy storage medium. It can be used as a feedstock for a variety of processes, such as direct reduction of iron ore or polymer production. It can lift dirigibles too (with appropriate safety measures).