Hydrogen is gaining relevance as a fuel, energy carrier and storage solution to support decarbonization targets. However, its large-scale use still faces limitations related to efficient storage and transport. Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) offer a promising route, as they allow hydrogen to be stored and released through reversible chemical reactions.
Current LOHC systems can require high operating temperatures or present limited hydrogen storage capacity, which can restrict their efficiency and industrial implementation.
To address this need, researchers from the Institute of Advanced Materials at Universitat Jaume I developed a LOHC system based on commercial catalysts, enabling hydrogen storage and release at lower temperatures and with high storage capacity.
The technology is a procedure for storing and releasing hydrogen through the reversible hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of phenol into cyclohexanol. The process can be carried out in a single step or through an intermediate step involving cyclohexanone.
The dehydrogenation reactions take place at 100–160 ºC, while hydrogenation occurs at 50–100 ºC. These operating temperatures are lower than those required by many commercial LOHC processes.
The system uses commercially available catalysts and liquid organic carriers with a hydrogen storage capacity of 6% by weight. The use of common industrial products and commercial catalysts supports scalability and future industrial implementation.
The technology has been tested at laboratory scale under different operating conditions, including temperature, pressure, catalyst type, catalyst concentration, cooling time and solvents. These tests showed consistent results and enabled process optimization.
Due to the nature of the process and the use of commercially available catalysts, the system is considered suitable for scale-up.
Benefits:
- Hydrogen storage capacity of 6% by weight.
- Lower operating temperatures than many LOHC systems.
- Use of existing liquid fuel storage and transport infrastructure.
- Safe long-term hydrogen storage in liquid form.
- Non-toxic and abundant liquid carriers.
- Commercial, reusable and recyclable catalysts.
- Scalable process for industrial implementation.
- Contribution to low-carbon hydrogen technologies.
The represented institution is looking for a collaboration that leads to commercial exploitation of the presented invention.
Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)
TRL: 3
Protection Status: Spanish Patent
Contact: Begoña Iborra | biborra@viromii.com