Date palm waste and the secret of sustainable hydrogen production
Scientists at the United Arab Emirates University have developed a sustainable approach to producing hydrogen fuel. It could be one of the big breakthroughs in our search for clean energy
Sponsored by United Arab Emirates University
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
There are many green technologies that present us with zero-carbon solutions that could support the fight against climate change. The problem is making them sustainable.
Take hydrogen fuel. It could be our great hope for the future of clean energy. But science is still working to develop efficient and scalable methods for producing hydrogen – and without relying on precious metals and other finite resources that will ultimately be exhausted.
“All of the materials and sources we were using were not renewable, not sustainable,” says Muhammad Tahir, associate professor in the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Tahir has been working on hydrogen production for 10 years and has devised a photocatalytic approach to sustainable hydrogen production that uses date palm waste to split water into hydrogen.
Photocatalytic hydrogen production has long had potential as a solution, but titanium, nickel and other doping agents used in developing the catalysts are expensive and finite. “The main problem in water splitting is the cost,” says Tahir. “When we use the catalyst, it is very expensive, so this process cannot be commercialised. Industry asks, ‘What are the resources? What fuel do you use? All of the metals you are using are very expensive.’ For example, we are using platinum, we are using gold, we are using silver – all are very expensive.”
Existing processes are also laborious and water-intensive. Tahir’s is the opposite. He is using an abundant resource – date palm syrup – that needs little processing. The date palm syrup is mixed with graphitic carbon nitride and heated to 550 degrees Celsius for two hours, then stirred, mixed and dried overnight. The resulting composite is then ready to be used as a photocatalyst.
Tahir’s invention relies on the heavily salted water leftover from the desalination process. There is no pressure on the local community’s drinking water. Again, it’s sustainable, but this water source is also scientifically beneficial, with the ions in the saltwater making the date palm syrup composite more effective. Sunlight does the rest of the heavy lifting.
Tahir’s invention has already been granted a US patent and UAEU’s outreach team is exploring commercial partnerships to take it further. He has ambitions of scaling the project globally and has held talks with climate and sustainability scientists in Sweden about applications for the technology. “We are going to extend this idea globally and see how we can get the benefit of their expertise,” he says. “Because maybe they have expertise that we do not.” Tahir has also submitted a proposal to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which is investing heavily in hydrogen production.
As the project matures, he believes they can not only develop hydrogen but also clean water. “Another benefit is that we are cleaning the water too. That is the second stage of the project,” he says. “We will produce the two useful products, one is hydrogen, the second is clean water, and we are using locally available resources.”