(December 15, 2015) Researchers
are proposing a new "hydricity" concept aimed at creating a
sustainable economy by not only generating electricity with solar energy but
also producing and storing hydrogen from superheated water for round-the-clock
power production.
"The proposed hydricity concept represents a potential
breakthrough solution for continuous and efficient power generation," said
Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue University's Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor
in the School of Chemical Engineering, who worked with chemical engineering
doctoral student Emre Gençer and other researchers. "The concept provides
an exciting opportunity to envision and create a sustainable economy to meet
all the human needs including food, chemicals, transportation, heating and
electricity."
Hydrogen can be combined with carbon from agricultural
biomass to produce fuel, fertilizer and other products.
"If you can borrow carbon from sustainably available
biomass you can produce anything: electricity, chemicals, heating, food and
fuel," Agrawal said.
Findings are detailed in a research paper appearing this
week (Dec. 14) in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
Hydricity uses solar concentrators to focus sunlight,
producing high temperatures and superheating water to operate a series of
electricity-generating steam turbines and reactors for splitting water into
hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen would be stored for use overnight to
superheat water and run the steam turbines, or it could be used for other
applications, producing zero greenhouse-gas emissions.
"Traditionally electricity production and hydrogen
production have been studied in isolation, and what we have done is
synergistically integrate these processes while also improving them,"
Agrawal said.
The PNAS paper was authored by Gençer; former chemical
engineering graduate student Dharik S. Mallapragada; François Maréchal, a
professor and chemical process engineer from École Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne in Switzerland; Mohit Tawarmalani, a professor and Allison and Nancy
Schleicher Chair of Management at Purdue's Krannert School of Management; and
Agrawal.