While hydrogen and fuel cells go nicely together, the gas is already heavily used for fertilizers, chemical plants and food production. However, making hydrogen using natural gas or even water electrolysis is expensive and unsustainable. Finding a new source makes sense.
“Hydrogen has been identified as a key future fuel for low carbon energy systems such as power generation in fuel cells and as a transport fuel,” Dupont says.
Graham Hutchings of Cardiff University has other possibilities in mind. He’s working on a UK government-funded research project involving Imperial College and Cambridge University to find different uses for waste glycerol.
“There is a glycerol problem, so people are looking for opportunities to do anything other than burn it. Turning it into hydrogen is a neat idea,” Hutchings says.
His project is therefore seeking “high tonnage” answers by turning glycerol into valuable monomers for plastics production, biodegradable solvents and even fragrances. There are several research threads, currently confidential, being worked on.
“We’re looking for things that have real application,” Hutchings says.
This could include biodegradable polymers for plastic bags or perhaps solvents for paints. If such uses are developed, the glycerol glut might well become a welcome bonus.
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