Carbon-neutral hydrogen can be produced from farm waste

[Caribbeans]

Carbon-neutral hydrogen can be produced from farm waste

Bioethanol made from fermented agricultural waste can be turned into zero-carbon hydrogen through a new process that uses much less energy than other sources

NewScientist.com | Madeleine Cuff | 13 February 2025

Hydrogen could be made using agricultural waste under a new production process that uses less energy than existing methods and emits no greenhouse gases.

The novel process turns bioethanol into clean hydrogen and acetic acid, a substance found in vinegar that is also used in the chemicals, food and pharmaceutical industries.

Most hydrogen is produced from natural gas; the process is energy-intensive and expensive. Hydrogen can also be produced from water using renewable electricity, but this approach is even more expensive than using natural gas.

Graham Hutchings at the University of Cardiff, UK, and his colleagues have developed an alternative method that relies on a catalyst made of platinum and iridium to extract hydrogen from bioethanol and water, without releasing any carbon dioxide. The bioethanol used in the process can be made from waste plant material, Hutchings says.

“We don’t make CO2, and so we are not making something that is an environmental burden,” says Hutchings. “We are taking a biologically sustainable source of carbon and hydrogen, and we are turning that into renewable hydrogen and renewable acetic acid. That’s quite neat.” more
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2468381-carbon-neutral-hydrogen-can-be-produced-from-farm-waste/

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[thatdemguy]

1. Now we need to find a good use for acetic acid, as it breaks down in to methane and co2

and water when heated. Maybe if it could be done and use some of the methane to help the prosses not use another outside energy.

[NNadir]

2. There's lots of bullshit about how hydrogen CAN be made in theory, but it's overwhelmingly made from fossil fuels.

In fact, the paper to which I refer often to show that how hydrogen is really made is a "hydrogen from biomass" paper, which notes that hydrogen is not made in any significant amounts from any source but fossil fuels.



The caption:

Figure 1. Global current sources of H2 production (a), and H2 consumption sectors (b).

Progress on Catalyst Development for the Steam Reforming of Biomass and Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Volatiles: A Review Laura Santamaria, Gartzen Lopez, Enara Fernandez, Maria Cortazar, Aitor Arregi, Martin Olazar, and Javier Bilbao, Energy & Fuels 2021 35 (21), 17051-17084]
I referred to this graphic, and reproduced it, discussing a paper in the journal I discussed above here:

The current sources and uses of hydrogen.

It is nice though to see the advertisers trying to rebrand fossil fuels as "hydrogen," referring to bullshit as a hydrogen source. It certainly is a rare burst of honesty.

There is, by the way, no evidence that the tiny amounts of hydrogen are made from electrolysis use electricity generated by any other source than the fossil fuels that dominate the world supply of electricity, still, in 2025.