California needs new technologies for power storage as it transitions to renewable fuels due to fluctuations in solar and wind power. A Stanford team, led by Robert Waymouth, is developing a method to store energy in liquid fuels using liquid organic hydrogen carriers , focusing on converting and storing energy in isopropanol without producing hydrogen gas. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
“The electric grid uses energy at the same rate that you generate it, and if you’re not using it at that time, and you can’t store it, you must throw it away,” said Robert Waymouth, the Robert Eckles Swain Professor in Chemistry in the School of Humanities and Sciences.team to explore an emerging technology for renewable energy storage: liquid organic hydrogen carriers . Hydrogen is already used as fuel or a means for generating electricity, but containing and transporting it is tricky.
The Waymouth team studies isopropanol and acetone as ingredients in hydrogen energy storage and release systems. Isopropanol – or rubbing alcohol – is a high-density liquid form of hydrogen that could be stored or transported through existing infrastructure until it’s time to use it as a fuel in a fuel cell or to release the hydrogen for use without emitting carbon dioxide.
A key surprise was that cobaltocene was the magic additive. Cobaltocene, a chemical compound of cobalt, a non-precious metal, has long been used as a simple reducing agent and is relatively inexpensive. The researchers found that cobaltocene is unusually efficient when used as a co-catalyst in this reaction, directly delivering protons and electrons to the iridium catalyst rather than liberating hydrogen gas, as was previously expected.
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