Rapid Production of High‐Purity Hydrogen Fuel through Microwave‐Promoted Deep Catalytic Dehydrogenation of Liquid Alkanes with Abundant Metals

Abstract

Abstract Hydrogen as an energy carrier promises a sustainable energy revolution. However, one of the greatest challenges for any future hydrogen economy is the necessity for large scale hydrogen production not involving concurrent CO 2 production. The high intrinsic hydrogen content of liquid‐range alkane hydrocarbons (including diesel) offers a potential route to CO 2 ‐free hydrogen production through their catalytic deep dehydrogenation. We report here a means of rapidly liberating high‐purity hydrogen by microwave‐promoted catalytic dehydrogenation of liquid alkanes using Fe and Ni particles supported on silicon carbide. A H 2 production selectivity from all evolved gases of some 98 %, is achieved with less than a fraction of a percent of adventitious CO and CO 2 . The major co‐product is solid, elemental carbon.