IIT Delhi Uses Water To Generate Hydrogen Fuel At Low Cost

A pilot plant has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Delhi) research group, to produce hydrogen fuel from water at a low cost. Prof Sreedevi Upadhyayula, Prof Ashok N Bhaskarwar and Prof Anupam Shukla of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Prof Saswata Bhattacharya of the Department of Physics, were in charge of the project.

The project was funded by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Energy Centre (OEC).

NDTV

The IIT Delhi team has successfully split water via a method known as the Sulphur-Iodine (SI) thermochemical hydrogen cycle, to manufacture low-cost, renewable hydrogen fuel for industrial consumption, as part of its research. Emissions can be mitigated by hydrogen gas, a viable option as a sustainable replacement for fossil fuels.

The design of an effective catalyst for the energy-intensive and corrosive step of sulphuric acid conversion to sulphur dioxide and oxygen, was one of the key challenges faced by the IIT Delhi researchers. The in-house catalyst follows these conditions and is now patented; the Institute is designing and demonstrating a method based on them.

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Representational Image/SciTech Daily

NDTV quoted the project supervisor, Prof Sreedevi Upadhyayula, Department of Chemical Engineering, as saying, ¡°There is an imminent need to switch over to renewable energy sources such as water. The thermo-chemical hydrogen cycle for splitting water offers a practical means of generating hydrogen as a fuel and also oxygen as a by-product. Hence, it can be considered favorably for the commercial production of hydrogen on a large scale, in the near future.¡±

Representational images/WLADIMIR BULGAR/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Further, her team has demonstrated the entire integrated closed loop pilot plant at IIT Delhi. ¡°We have employed a combined state-of-the-art experimental and theoretical approach to design an efficient and cost-effective heterogeneous catalyst (for the Sulphuric acid decomposition step of S-I cycle for hydrogen production) functional under high temperature, corrosive conditions while also being cost-effective,¡± she reportedly said.

This is a great achievement in the field of search for alternative fuels.