Power to Gas – Theme Project of ARC Research Hub for Integrated Energy Storage Solutions

December 6th, 2021

R&D Focus Areas:
Direct hydrogen carrier production, Energy systems integration, Electricity

Lead Organisation:
University of New South Wales (Sydney)

Partners:
ANU, ANSTO, University of Sydney, Chuangqi Shidai Qingdao Technology Co. Ltd

Status:
Active

Start date:
July 2019

Completion date:
Estimated July 2025

Key contacts:
Scientia Professor Rose Amal: r.amal@unsw.edu.au

Funding:
AUD$400,000 for this theme over 5 years

Project total cost:
AUD$5.12 million – main project cash contribution, including Australian Research Council and industry contributions

Project summary description:
Power to X (P2X) is an umbrella term for technologies that can produce clean fuels and chemicals using low-cost renewable energy and can play a key role in the energy transition towards an energy system fuelled by renewable energy sources. The project partners are working on advanced catalytic systems for power-to-X conversion, extending the capability of fuel cell technologies and enabling complementary technology directly from renewable energy input (e.g., solar). One of the broad goals of the research is to better integrate the power and gas grids by developing efficient and cost-effective methods for converting surplus electrical power into usable gas. Activities from this project include:

  1. Water electrolysis using non-Platinum materials: The work in this area encompassed development of high efficiency water electrolysers centred on non-platinum materials. A series of cobalt-oxide catalyst for both Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) and the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) were designed and developed with the strategy to use the same electrode for both cathode and anode in water electrolysers to reduce the costs of electrolyser stack, subsequently improving their feasibility. In addition, the project also investigates the feasibility of hydrogen generation using renewable energy drive commercial electrolyser systems.
  2. CO2 electrolysis: The work involved in this project is to develop electrocatalyst and cell materials for CO2 electrolysis to convert waste CO2 to syngas, which can then be used as a feedstock for further chemical synthesis into value added chemicals. To date, the project has developed a suite of defective metal-oxide and metal-carbon catalysts for example: using defective ZnO materials prepared using a scalable one-step synthesis process; using metal-carbon catalysts such as Ni-single atom catalysts and Cobalt encapsulated within graphitic carbon shell.
  3. Solar synthesis of methane from H2 and waste CO2: The conversion of CO2 and hydrogen to methane (often known as Sabatier reaction) is an exothermic reaction, which requires a catalyst to aid the breakdown of the stable CO2 Noble metal catalysts based have displayed very high activities for the process, but due to high noble metal cost, this has dictated the development of transition metal alternatives. In this project, two works have been carried out:
    1. Light enhanced CO2 reduction to Methane (CH4) by utilising light and heat from the sun to power the catalytic reaction. Studies have been conducted to explore the effect of light of different wavelengths and intensities on nonprecious transition-metal catalysts with photo absorption with the aim to use it for the hydrogenation of CO2 to methane
    2. Low temperature CO2 methanation: In here, investigation into the synergistic effects in plasma-Ni Hybrid catalytic system with the aim to address the knowledge gap in current understanding of chemical and physical behaviours in the hybrid plasma catalytic interactions. The objective is to demonstrate plasma-driven CO2 conversions with high methane yields even at relatively low temperature (150 °C).

Related publications and key links:

  1. Nguyen, T. K. A., Trần-Phú, T., Ta, X. M. C., Truong, T. N., Leverett, J., Daiyan, R., Amal, R., & Tricoli, A. (2024). Understanding Structure-Activity Relationship in Pt-loaded g-C3N4 for Efficient Solar- Photoreforming of Polyethylene Terephthalate Plastic and Hydrogen Production [Article]. Small Methods, 8(2), Article 2300427. https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202300427
  1. Ta, X. M. C., Nguyen, T. K. A., Bui, A. D., Nguyen, H. T., Daiyan, R., Amal, R., Tran-Phu, T., & Tricoli, A. (2023). Optimizing Surface Composition and Structure of FeWO4 Photoanodes for Enhanced Water Photooxidation [Article]. Advanced Materials Technologies, 8(8), Article 2201760. https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.202201760
  1. Tran-Phu, T., Chatti, M., Leverett, J., Nguyen, T. K. A., Simondson, D., Hoogeveen, D. A., Kiy, A., Duong, T., Johannessen, B., Meilak, J., Kluth, P., Amal, R., Simonov, A. N., Hocking, R. K., Daiyan, R., & Tricoli, A. (2023). Understanding the Role of (W, Mo, Sb) Dopants in the Catalyst Evolution and Activity Enhancement of Co3O4 during Water Electrolysis via In Situ Spectroelectrochemical Techniques [Article]. Small, 19(25), Article 2208074.
  1. Dong, Z. Y., Yang, J., Yu, L., Daiyan, R., & Amal, R. (2022). A green hydrogen credit framework for international green hydrogen trading towards a carbon neutral future [Article]. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 47(2), 728-734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.10.084
  1. Leverett, J., Khan, M. H. A., Tran-Phu, T., Tricoli, A., Hocking, R. K., Yun, S. L. J., Dai, L., Daiyan, R., & Amal, R. (2022). Renewable Power for Electrocatalytic Generation of Syngas: Tuning the Syngas Ratio by Manipulating the Active Sites and System Design [Review]. ChemCatChem, 14(24), Article e202200981. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.202200981
  1. Leverett, J., Tran-Phu, T., Yuwono, J. A., Kumar, P., Kim, C., Zhai, Q., Han, C., Qu, J., Cairney, J., Simonov, A. N., Hocking, R. K., Dai, L., Daiyan, R., & Amal, R. (2022). Tuning the Coordination Structure of Cu-N-C Single Atom Catalysts for Simultaneous Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 and NO3– to Urea [Article]. Advanced Energy Materials, 12(32), Article 2201500. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202201500
  1. Leverett, J., Yuwono, J. A., Kumar, P., Tran-Phu, T., Qu, J., Cairney, J., Wang, X., Simonov, A. N., Hocking, R. K., Johannessen, B., Dai, L., Daiyan, R., & Amal, R. (2022). Impurity Tolerance of Unsaturated Ni-N-C Active Sites for Practical Electrochemical CO2 Reduction [Article]. ACS Energy Letters, 7(3), 920-928. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.1c02711
  1. Ta, X. M. C., Daiyan, R., Nguyen, T. K. A., Amal, R., Tran-Phu, T., & Tricoli, A. (2022). Alternatives to Water Photooxidation for Photoelectrochemical Solar Energy Conversion and Green H2 Production [Review]. Advanced Energy Materials, 12(42), Article 2201358. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202201358
  1. Tian, Z., Zhang, Q., Thomsen, L., Gao, N., Pan, J., Daiyan, R., Yun, J., Brandt, J., López-Salas, N., Lai, F., Li, Q., Liu, T., Amal, R., Lu, X., & Antonietti, M. (2022). Constructing Interfacial Boron-Nitrogen Moieties in Turbostratic Carbon for Electrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Production [Article]. Angewandte Chemie – International Edition, 61(37), Article e202206915. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202206915
  1. Tran-Phu, T., Daiyan, R., Leverett, J., Fusco, Z., Tadich, A., Di Bernardo, I., Kiy, A., Truong, T. N., Zhang, Q., Chen, H., Kluth, P., Amal, R., & Tricoli, A. (2022). Understanding the activity and stability of flame-made Co3O4 spinels: A route towards the scalable production of highly performing OER electrocatalysts [Article]. Chemical Engineering Journal, 429, Article 132180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.132180
  1. Tran-Phu, T., Daiyan, R., Ta, X. M. C., Amal, R., & Tricoli, A. (2022). From Stochastic Self-Assembly of Nanoparticles to Nanostructured (Photo)Electrocatalysts for Renewable Power-to-X Applications via Scalable Flame Synthesis [Review]. Advanced Functional Materials, 32(13), Article 2110020. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202110020
  1. Zhang, Q., Zhe Ru, Z. L., Daiyan, R., Kumar, P., Pan, J., Lu, X., & Amal, R. (2021). Surface reconstruction enabled efficient hydrogen generation on a cobalt-iron phosphate electrocatalyst in neutral water [Article]. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 13(45), 53798-53809. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c14588
  1. Leverett, J., Daiyan, R., Gong, L., Iputera, K., Tong, Z., Qu, J., Ma, Z., Zhang, Q., Cheong, S., Cairney, J., Liu, R. S., Lu, X., Xia, Z., Dai, L., & Amal, R. (2021). Designing Undercoordinated Ni-Nxand Fe-Nxon Holey Graphene for Electrochemical CO2Conversion to Syngas [Article]. ACS Nano, 15(7), 12006-12018. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.1c03293
  1. Deng, C., Wu, K. H., Lu, X., Cheong, S., Tilley, R. D., Chiang, C. L., Lin, Y. C., Lin, Y. G., Yan, W., Scott, J., Amal, R., & Wang, D. W. (2021). Ligand-Promoted Cooperative Electrochemical Oxidation of Bio-Alcohol on Distorted Cobalt Hydroxides for Bio-Hydrogen Extraction [Article]. ChemSusChem, 14(12), 2612-2620. https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202100722
  1. Ali Khan, M. H., Daiyan, R., Neal, P., Haque, N., MacGill, I., & Amal, R. (2021). A framework for assessing economics of blue hydrogen production from steam methane reforming using carbon capture storage & utilisation [Article]. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 46(44), 22685-22706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.04.104
  1. Sun, J., Lu, X., Wu, K. H., Hou, J., Fang, R., Hart, J. N., Zhu, S., Chen, V., Amal, R., & Wang, D. W. (2020). Dynamic single-site polysulfide immobilization in long-range disorder Cu-MOFs [Article]. Chemical Communications, 56(69), 10074-10077. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cc04001k
  1. Tran-Phu, T., Daiyan, R., Fusco, Z., Ma, Z., Rahim, L. R. A., Kiy, A., Kluth, P., Guo, X., Zhu, Y., Chen, H., Amal, R., & Tricoli, A. (2020). Multifunctional nanostructures of Au-Bi2O3fractals for CO2reduction and optical sensing [Article]. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 8(22), 11233-11245. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ta01723j
  1. Cui, Y., Tan, X., Xiao, K., Zhao, S., Bedford, N. M., Liu, Y., Wang, Z., Wu, K. H., Pan, J., Saputera, W. H., Cheong, S., Tilley, R. D., Smith, S. C., Yun, J., Dai, L., Amal, R., & Wang, D. W. (2020). Tungsten Oxide/Carbide Surface Heterojunction Catalyst with High Hydrogen Evolution Activity [Article]. ACS Energy Letters, 5(11), 3560-3568. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01858
  1. Daiyan, R., Lovell, E. C., Huang, B., Zubair, M., Leverett, J., Zhang, Q., Lim, S., Horlyck, J., Tang, J., Lu, X., Kalantar-Zadeh, K., Hart, J. N., Bedford, N. M., & Amal, R. (2020). Uncovering Atomic-Scale Stability and Reactivity in Engineered Zinc Oxide Electrocatalysts for Controllable Syngas Production [Article]. Advanced Energy Materials, 10(28), Article 2001381. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202001381
  1. Daiyan, R., Macgill, I., & Amal, R. (2020). Opportunities and Challenges for Renewable Power-to-X [Article]. ACS Energy Letters, 5(12), 3843-3847. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.0c02249
  1. Daiyan, R., Zhu, X., Tong, Z., Gong, L., Razmjou, A., Liu, R. S., Xia, Z., Lu, X., Dai, L., & Amal, R. (2020). Transforming active sites in nickel–nitrogen–carbon catalysts for efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction to CO [Article]. Nano Energy, 78, Article 105213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.105213

Higher degree studies supported:
Two PhD students supported based at University of New South Wales

 

Reviewed: July 2024