Commercializable power source from forming new states of hydrogen

The data from a broad spectrum of investigational techniques strongly and consistently indicates that hydrogen can exist in lower-energy states than previously thought possible. The predicted reaction involves a resonant, nonradiative energy transfer from otherwise stable atomic hydrogen to a catalyst capable of accepting the energy. The product is H(1/p  ), fractional Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen called “hydrino atoms” wherein n=(1/2,1/3,1/4,…1/p)$n=(1/2,1/3,1/4,\dots 1/p)$ (p ≤ 137 is an integer) replaces the well-known parameter n = integer in the Rydberg equation for hydrogen excited states. Atomic lithium and molecular NaH served as catalysts since they meet the catalyst criterion—a chemical or physical process with an enthalpy change equal to an integer multiple m of the potential energy of atomic hydrogen, 27.2 eV (e.g. m = 3 for Li and m = 2 for NaH). Specific predictions based on closed-form equations for energy levels of the corresponding hydrino hydride ions H⁻(1/4) of novel alkali halido hydrino hydride compounds (MH*X; M = Li or Na, X = halide) and molecular hydrino H₂(1/4) were tested using chemically generated catalysis reactants.     

Hydrino continuum transitions with cutoffs at 22.8 nm and 10.1 nm

Classical physical laws predict that atomic hydrogen may undergo a catalytic reaction with certain species, including itself, that can accept energy in integer multiples of the potential energy of atomic hydrogen, m·27.2 eV, wherein m is an integer. The predicted reaction involves a resonant, nonradiative energy transfer from otherwise stable atomic hydrogen to the catalyst capable of accepting the energy. The product is H(1/p), fractional Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen called “hydrino atoms,” wherein n = 1/2, 1/3, 1/4,…, 1/p (p ≤ 137 is an integer) replaces the well-known parameter n = integer in the Rydberg equation for hydrogen excited states. Each hydrino state also comprises an electron, a proton, and a photon, but the field contribution from the photon increases the binding rather than decreasing it corresponding to energy desorption rather than absorption. Since the potential energy of atomic hydrogen is 27.2 eV, two H atoms formed from H₂ by collision with a third, hot H can act as a catalyst for this third H by accepting 2·27.2 eV from it. By the same mechanism, the collision of two hot H₂ provide 3H to serve as a catalyst of 3·27.2 eV for the fourth. Following the energy transfer to the catalyst an intermediate is formed having the radius of the H atom and a central field of 3 and 4 times the central field of a proton, respectively, due to the contribution of the photon of each intermediate. The radius is predicted to decrease as the electron undergoes radial acceleration to a stable state having a radius that is 1/3 (m = 2) or 1/4 (m = 3) the radius of the uncatalyzed hydrogen atom with the further release of 54.4 eV and 122.4 eV of energy, respectively. This energy emitted as a characteristic EUV continuum with a cutoff at 22.8 nm and 10.1 nm, respectively, was observed from pulsed hydrogen discharges. The continua spectra directly and indirectly match significant celestial observations.     

Energy production by laser-induced annihilation in ultradense hydrogen H(0)

Laser-induced nuclear processes in ultra-dense hydrogen H(0) give ejection of bunches of mesons similar to known baryon annihilation processes. This process was recently described as useful for relativistic interstellar travel (Holmlid and Zeiner-Gundersen 2020) and more precise experimental results exist now. The mesons are identified from their known decay time constants at rest as slow charged kaons, slow neutral long-lived kaons and slow charged pions. Other observed time constants are interpreted as relativistically dilated decays for fast mesons of the same three types, with kinetic energy up to 100 MeV for the kaons. Mouns are observed with kinetic energy of >100 MeV as decay products from the mesons. These particle energies are much too high to be due to nuclear fusion in hydrogen, and the only known process which can give such energies is baryon annihilation. A model of the annihilation process starting with two protons or two neutrons gives good agreement with the observed meson types and their masses and kinetic energies, thus now giving the complete energetics of the process. The process works with both D(0) and p(0). The efficiency from mass (of two baryons) to useful energy is 46% (contrary to 0.3% for T + D fusion) and the main non-recoverable energy loss is to neutrinos. Neutrons are not formed or ejected so this is an aneutronic process. The energy which can be extracted from ordinary hydrogen is 11.4 TWh per kg. This annihilation method is well suited for small and medium energy applications in the kW to MW range, but scaling-up to GW power stations requires further development. It is unlikely that this energy production method can be used for weapons since there is no ignition or chain reaction.     

Superhydrophobic Pt–Pd/Al2O3 catalyst coating for hydrogen mitigation system of nuclear power plant

Passive auto-catalytic recombiner (PAR) system is an important hydrogen mitigation method which has been applied in most modern light water nuclear reactors. The two challenges for the highly efficient PAR are the detrimental effect of water and poisoning by fission products. In this study, to address the two challenges, superhydrophobic Pt–Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst coatings were prepared by wet impregnation method and the grafting of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane.The formation of a Pt–Pd intermetallic compound was confirmed by in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for the Pt–Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst. The Pt–Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst exhibited a superior resistance of water poisoning to the monometallic catalysts. In addition, compared with the monometallic catalysts, the least influence by the iodine poisoning was observed for the Pt–Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst, which is attributed to the smallest influence on the bindings of H₂ and O₂ on the Pt–Pd intermetallic compound by the iodine addition. For the reactor with the superhydrophobic Pt–Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst coating, under the conditions simulating the nuclear accident, the reaction was ignited immediately as soon as the hydrogen was introduced at 298 K and the hydrogen conversion kept 100% when the reaction temperature exceeded 398 K. The superhydrophobic Pt–Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst coating showed great potential for the mitigation of hydrogen containing various poisons during the nuclear accident.     

Hydrogen retention and affecting factors in rolled tungsten: Thermal desorption spectra and molecular dynamics simulations

Hydrogen isotope retention of tungsten in nuclear fusion reactors is one of the hot research issues all along. In this paper, tungsten samples in different rolled surfaces were polished by mechanical processing, subsequently subjected to D₂⁺ irradiation and thermal desorption. To better understand the experimental observations, this study also performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and investigated the effects of temperature, grain number, grain boundary density, and crystal orientation on hydrogen retention. It is found that the grain number and grain boundary density of rolled tungsten increase successively in RD/TD, RD/ND, and TD/ND surfaces. The RD/ND surface exhibits the best hydrogen radiation resistance, whereas the TD/ND surface is unsatisfactory. MD simulations further indicate that hydrogen retention is more obvious with the increase of grain density in tungsten, and hydrogen atoms are more easily enriched at the grain boundaries. With the increase in temperature, the retention of hydrogen atoms in monocrystalline/polycrystalline tungsten decreases significantly. The average implantation depth of H atoms is deepest along the <111> and <112> crystalline directions, which reveals that hydrogen retention is dependent on the crystal orientations. The good agreement between the experimental data and simulation results reveals that grain boundaries play an important role in hydrogen retention.     

Influence of Pt decoration on the hydrogen storage performance of cup-stacked carbon nanotubes: A DFT study

The hydrogen adsorption behaviour of cup-stacked carbon nanotubes (CSCNTs) decorated with the platinum atom at four positions of the conical graphene layer (CGL) is investigated using density functional theory. The optimization shows that the inside lower edge position (IL) results have the best hydrogen adsorption parameters among the four positions. The Pt–H₂ distance is 1.54 Å, the H–H bond length (l_H-H) is 1.942 Å, and the hydrogen adsorption energy (E_ads) is 1.51 eV. The hydrogen adsorption of CSCNTs decorated by Pt at the IL position also has larger E_ads and l_H-H than the Pt-doped planar graphene, Pt-doped single-wall carbon nanotubes and Pt-doped carbon nanocones. The Pt atom at the IL position has a more significant polarization effect on the adsorbed H₂, it has trends to convert H₂ into two separate H atoms. While the hydrogen adsorption behaviour at other positions belongs to the Kubas coordination, the l_H-H and the E_ads increased not significantly.     

Methane decomposition to pure hydrogen and carbon nano materials: State-of-the-art and future perspectives

Hydrogen is a clean fuel widely used in fuel cells, engines, rockets and many other devices. The catalytic decomposition of methane (CDM) is a CO_x-free hydrogen production technology from which carbon nano materials (CNMs) can be generated as a high value-added byproduct for electrode, membranes and sensors. Recent work has focused on developing a low cost catalyst that could work without rapid deactivation by carbon deposition. In this review, the economic and environmental evaluation of CDM are compared with coal gasification, steam reforming of methane, and methanol steam reforming in terms of productivity, CO₂ emissions, and H₂ production and cost. CDM could be a favorable technology for on-site demand-driven hydrogen production on a small or medium industrial scale. This study covers the Fe-based, Ni-based, noble metal, and carbonaceous catalysts for the CDM process. Focusing on hydrogen (or carbon) yield and production cost, Fe-based catalysts are preferable for CDM. Although Ni-based catalysts showed a much higher hydrogen yield with 0.39 mol_H2/g_cat./h than Fe-based catalysts with 0.22 mol_H2/g_cat./h, the hydrogen cost of the former was estimated to be 100-fold higher ($0.89/$0.009). Further, the CDM performance on different types of reactors are detailed, whereas the molten-metal catalyst/reactor is suggested to be a promising route to commercialize CDM. Finally, the formation mechanism, characterization, and utilization of carbon byproducts with different morphologies and structures are described and analyzed. Versus other reviews, this review shows that cheap Fe-based catalysts (10 tons H₂/1 ton iron ore) and novel molten-metal reactors (95% methane conversion) for CDM are feasible research directions for a fundamental understanding of CDM. The CNMs by CDM could be applied to the waste water purification, lubricating oils, and supercapacitors.     

Methane decomposition to produce COx-free hydrogen and nano-carbon over metal catalysts: A review

Catalytic decomposition of methane (CDM) is a promising technology for producing CO_x-free hydrogen and nano-carbon, meanwhile it is a prospective substitute to steam reforming of methane for producing hydrogen. The produced hydrogen is refined and can be applied to the field of electronic, metallurgical, synthesis of fine organic chemicals and aerospace industries. However, the CDM for CO_x-free hydrogen production is still in its infancy. The urgent for industrial scale of CDM is more important than ever in the current situation of huge CO_x emission. This review studies CDM development on Ni-based, noble metal, carbon and Fe-based catalysts, especially over cheap Fe-based catalyst to indicate that CDM would be a promising feasible method for large hydrogen production at a moderate cheap price. Besides, the recent advances in the reaction mechanism and kinetic study over metal catalysts are outlined to indicate that the catalyst deactivation rate would become more quickly with increasing temperature than the CDM rate does. This review also evaluates the roles played by various parameters on CDM catalysts performance, such as metal loading effect, influences of supports, hydrogen reduction, methane reduction and methane/hydrogen carburization. Catalysts deactivation by carbon deposition is the prime challenge found in CDM process, as an interesting approach, a molten-metal reactor to continually remove the floated surface solid carbons is put forwarded in accordance to overcome the deactivation drawback. Moreover, particular CDM reactors using substituted heating sources such as plasma and solar are detailed illustrated in this review in addition to the common electrical heating reactors of fixed bed, fluidized bed reactors. The development of high efficiency catalysts and the optimization of reactors are necessary premises for the industrial-scale production of CDM.     

Theoretical study on hydrogen solubility and diffusivity in the γ-TiAl L10 structure

The present work is a discussion on hydrogen solubility and diffusivity in the TiAl-L1₀ system using first-principles calculations. First, ground-state properties of the TiAl-L1₀ system are presented and discussed using elastic, phonon and thermal properties. They are compared with literature results. After having analyzed the geometry of L1₀ using the space-group theory, ten potential interstitial sites for hydrogen insertion were identified (among which the various octahedral and tetrahedral sites). After relaxation, only three configurations remained stable, but one site was significantly more stable than the others. The interactions between hydrogen and metal atoms are then described and analyzed by computing different quantities such as phonon properties, charge transfers, formation volumes and elastic dipoles. Diffusion mechanisms were then studied by analyzing the possible displacements at the atomic scale, and the diffusion coefficient of H atoms in TiAl was finally computed. Results how that H diffusion is strongly anisotropic.     

Recyclable hydrogen storage system composed of ammonia and alkali metal hydride

Ammonia (NH₃) reacts with alkali metal hydrides MH (M = Li, Na, and K) in an exothermic reaction to release hydrogen (H₂) at room temperature, resulting that alkali metal amides (MNH₂) which are formed as by-products. In this work, hydrogen desorption properties of these systems and the condition for the recycle from MNH₂ back to MH were investigated systematically. For the hydrogen desorption reaction, the reactivities of MH with NH₃ were better following the atomic number of M on the periodic table, Li < Na < K. It was confirmed that the hydrogen absorption reaction of all the systems proceeded under 0.5 MPa of H₂ flow condition below 300 °C.     

Efficiency evaluation of high-temperature steam electrolytic systems coupled with different nuclear reactors

High efficiency is one of the remarkable advantages for the technology of high temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE). But when HTSE is coupled with different types of nuclear reactors, the coupled modes and materials selection of SOEC must be considered in order to achieve high overall thermal-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. In this paper, we proposed two possible coupled modes between HTSE systems and the nuclear reactors. As for the nuclear reactor with high outlet temperature, the direct-coupled mode is a suitable choice while for the nuclear reactor with the outlet temperature of reactor lower than 650 °C an assistant electricity-heating mode could be adopted. To compare the overall thermal-to-hydrogen conversion efficiencies of two coupled modes, the simple energy flow charts for the water splitting cycle were presented and discussed. Also, the η_overall of HTSE coupled with different nuclear reactors were calculated. The results showed that HTSE should be a competitive way for large-scale hydrogen production no matter coupled with nuclear reactors with high outlet temperature or low outlet temperature.     

Hydrogen production by thermocatalytic decomposition of methane over Ni-Al and Ni-Cu-Al catalysts: Effect of calcination temperature

Thermo catalytic decomposition of methane using Ni-Al and Ni-Cu-Al catalyst prepared by fusion of the corresponding nitrates is studied. The effects of catalyst calcination temperature on the hydrogen yields and the characteristics of the carbon obtained are studied. The role of copper has been also analyzed. Whatever the calcination temperature, all the catalysts show a high and almost constant hydrogen yield without catalyst deactivation after 8 h on stream, which confirms the good performance of this kind of catalysts. The presence of copper enhances the hydrogen production and the best results were obtained using catalysts calcined at 600 °C. Cu has a strong influence on the dispersion of Ni in the catalysts and inhibits NiO from the formation of nickel aluminate even at high calcinations temperatures, which facilitates the formation of the metallic Ni active phase during the subsequent catalyst reduction step. All catalysts tested promote the formation of very long filaments of carbon a few tens of nanometers in diameter and some micrometers long. The structural properties of these carbon filaments highly depend on the presence of Cu:Ni-Cu-Al catalysts promote the formation of a well-ordered graphitic carbon while Ni-Al catalysts enhance the formation of a rather turbostratic carbon.     

Effects of lattice strain on hydrogen diffusion,trapping and escape in bcc iron from ab-initio calculations

Lattice strain potentially alters hydrogen (H) behaviors in structural materials and thus H-induced damages. Herein, we computationally investigate effects of lattice strain on H diffusion in the bulk region, and trapping by vacancy defects and escape in body-centered cubic (bcc) iron (Fe) using ab-initio calculations and statistical mechanics. The anisotropy of strain effect on H diffusion in bcc Fe is found in contrast with fcc systems, which essentially determines the alteration of H diffusion coefficient. The hydrostatic tensile strain attenuates H trapping, while the hydrostatic compressive strain inhibits H escape. The strong anisotropy of strain effect on H escape is confirmed, leading to low-barrier escape channels for H under the given anisotropic strain and facilitating H escape. This strong anisotropy is also reflected in the hopping of solute atoms He, C and O within {100} crystal planes. Strain effects on H trapping and escape become progressively more evident with decreasing temperature as shown by the escape rate. The obtained strain effects are in accordance with previous experimental observations on H in iron and steels under loading. Furthermore, the low-barrier channels of H escape from vacancy defects under strain are found to be the pathways where the density of electron gas is lower and the H-induced lattice distortion is weaker. The above results indicate a possibility of strain-promoted H-induced degradation of materials: strain-accelerated H transport from defects with low trapping depths for H to those with high trapping depths for H. This work also provides significant insights towards better understanding of H-isotope retention under strain in fusion reactors.     

Activating basal plane of Janus VSSe for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction by non-noble metal element doping: A first-principal study

Searching electrocatalysts with excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance is very important for developing clean hydrogen energy. Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been widely studied as HER electrocatalysts, however, the basal planes of 2D materials, which dominate the surface area, are usually with poor activity. In this work, we theoretically studied the HER activity of Janus 2H–VSSe with or without non-noble metal element doping. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that doping As and Si atoms in the S or Se sites of VSSe and the C and Ge atoms in the Se site of VSSe greatly promote the HER performance of the basal plane of VSSe, resulting in hydrogen adsorption free energy close to zero (i.e. ?0.022, ?0.040, 0.066, 0.065, ?0.030, 0.058 eV, respectively), which are better than the Pt catalyst (?0.09 eV). The doped atoms strengthen the interaction between their pz-orbital and the hydrogen s-orbital, resulting in a lower bonding state in energy and higher bind strength for the hydrogen atom. This work opens up a new way to design highly efficient and low-cost catalysts for HER.     

High-throughput screening of transition metal single-atom catalyst anchored on Janus MoSSe basal plane for hydrogen evolution reaction

Considerable efforts have been made to enhance the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalytic performance of Janus MoSSe monolayer, which have been considered to be a promising candidate due to the unique asymmetry structure. However, the activation effect remains non-optimal for the inert Janus MoSSe basal plane at present. Herein, a train of transition metal (TM) atoms were anchored on the S-/Se-/Mo-defective MoSSe basal plane to screen effective TM single-atom catalysts for HER through density functional theory (DFT) computations. Interestingly, the single Co atom anchored on Mo-defective MoSSe and the single Zn or Cd atom anchored on S-defective MoSSe were judged to possess excellent HER performance yielding a near-zero ΔG_H (ΔG_H = ?0.050, ?0.095, ?0.098 eV, respectively), which is comparable to the optimized Pt-SACs. The enhanced HER activity is attributed to the doping of TM atoms (Co, Zn and Cd) which improves the conductivity of the original MoSSe and offers unoccupied states near the Fermi level decreasing the energy barrier of electrons transfer between H and TMs@MoSSe surface. In addition, the change of unoccupied antibonding states of active atoms leads to appropriate interaction between the active sites and H. The hybridization between H-s orbital and the TMs@MoSSe systems around the Fermi level also suggests the formation of stable bonding-antibonding hydrogen adsorption states. This work reveals an effective way of activating MoSSe basal plane for HER.     

Bio-hydrogen production from acid hydrolyzed wheat starch by photo-fermentation using different Rhodobacter sp

Hydrogen gas production from sugar solution derived from acid hydrolysis of ground wheat starch by photo-fermentation was investigated. Three different pure strains of Rhodobacter sphaeroides (RV, NRLL and DSZM) were used in batch experiments to select the most suitable strain. The ground wheat was hydrolyzed in acid solution at pH = 3 and 90 °C in an autoclave for 15 min. The resulting sugar solution was used for hydrogen production by photo-fermentation after neutralization and nutrient addition. R. sphaeroides RV resulted in the highest cumulative hydrogen gas formation (178 ml), hydrogen yield (1.23 mol H₂ mol⁻¹ glucose) and specific hydrogen production rate (46 ml H₂ g⁻¹ biomass h⁻¹) at 5 g l⁻¹ initial total sugar concentration among the other pure cultures. Effects of initial sugar concentration on photo-fermentation performance were investigated by varying sugar concentration between 2.2 and 13 g l⁻¹ using the pure culture of R. sphaeroides RV. Cumulative hydrogen volume increased from 30 to 232 ml when total sugar concentration was increased from 2.2 to 8.5 g l⁻¹. Further increases in initial sugar concentration resulted in decreases in cumulative hydrogen formation. The highest hydrogen formation rate (3.69 ml h⁻¹) and yield (1.23 mol H₂ mol⁻¹ glucose) were obtained at a sugar concentration of 5 g l⁻¹.     

Syntheses of alkali-metal carbazolides for hydrogen storage

Metalorganic hydrides are a new class of hydrogen storage materials. Replacing the H of N–H or O–H functional groups using metal hydrides have been recently reported, which substantially improved the dehydrogenation properties of heteroaromatic organic hydrides by lowering their enthalpies of dehydrogenation (ΔH_d), enabling dehydrogenation at much lower temperatures. Among the reported metalorganic hydrides, lithium carbazolide and sodium carbazolide appear to be the most attractive hydrogen storage/delivery material owing to its high hydrogen capacity (>6.0 wt%) and ideal ΔH_d. Nevertheless, the interaction of carbazole and corresponding metal hydride to form metallo-carbazolide is a multistep process involving intensive ball milling and high temperature treatment, where the interaction was not investigated in detail. In this paper, both alkali metal hydrides and amides were employed to react with carbazole to synthesize corresponding carbazolides, aiming to broaden and optimize the synthetic method and understand the reaction mechanism. Our experimental results showed that around one equivalent of H₂ or NH₃ could be released from the reactions of carbazole and corresponding hydrides or amides, respectively. Instrumental spectroscopic analyses proved that metallo-carbazolides were successfully synthesized from all precursors. It is found that the alkali metal amides (i.e., LiNH₂ and NaNH₂) with stronger Lewis basicities as metal precursors could synthesize the metallo-carbazolides under milder conditions. Furthermore, quasi in situ nuclear magnetic resonance results revealed that alkali metal could replace H (H–N) gradually, donating more electrons to carbazole ring. Additionally, the solubilized alkali cation may unselectively interact with π-electron of aromatic systems of both carbazole molecules and carbazolide anions via electrostatic cation-π interactions.     

Exploration of vacancy defect formation and evolution in low-energy ion implanted pure titanium

Hydrogen behavior and its related property degradation have been long-standing problems for structural materials used in hydrogen energy. The hydrogen atoms can easily interact with vacancy defects, forming hydrogen vacancy complexes which play an important role in the hydrogen-induced structural damage. However, the interaction mechanisms and its evolutions are still unclear. In this work, the hydrogen behavior and the interaction between hydrogen with defects in pure titanium implanted by 30 keV and 50 keV hydrogen ions were studied by positron annihilation spectroscopy. The implantation doses were 5 × 10¹⁶ H/cm², 1 × 10¹⁷ H/cm² and 5 × 10¹⁷ H/cm², respectively. The results show that the structural damage of pure titanium is positively correlated with the ion implantation energy. For the implantation of 50 keV hydrogen ions, a large number of hydrogen atoms are deposited in the samples. With the increase of implantation dose, the formation of hydrogen vacancy complexes (H_mV_n) reduces the effective open-volume of defects and changes the structural features of defects in implanted samples, thus suppressing the formation of vacancy defects and causing the damage range shifting from the peak damage (PD) region to the near surface (NS) region. Eventually, the movement of hydrogen atoms intensifies, and the “hydrogen peak” becomes more obvious. The chemical information related to deposited hydrogen atoms can be easily identified in the processing and analysis of positron annihilation results.     

Generation of excited electronic states at the nonmetal surface by the hydrogen atoms beam

The low energy excitation electronic states by the hydrogen atoms at the nonmetal surface are described using several possible mechanisms. The study results of the luminescence excited surface of the phosphor ZnS-Tm during interaction with H atoms are reported. Nonstationary with time the light intensity from ZnS-Tm is detected. This phenomenon interpreted on basis of the exchange-associative mechanism taking into account the acceleration of the surface recombination of hydrogen atoms in the adsorbed layer of the vibrationally excited hydrogen molecules. The rates of the absorption and recombination of hydrogen atoms and the desorption rate of the hydrogen molecules are defined. The possible mechanisms of excitation of the surface electronic states during interaction with the hydrogen low-energy atoms are discussed.