Bioethanol made from fermented agricultural waste can be turned into zero-carbon hydrogen through a new process that uses much less energy than other sources
By Madeleine Cuff
13 February 2025
Farm waste could be turned into hydrogen fuel
ImageryBT/Shutterstock
Hydrogen could be made using agricultural waste under a new production process that uses less energy than existing methods and emits no greenhouse gases.
The novel process turns bioethanol into clean hydrogen and acetic acid, a substance found in vinegar that is also used in the chemicals, food and pharmaceutical industries.
Read more
A hydrogen fuel revolution is coming – here's why we might not want it
Advertisement
Most hydrogen is produced from natural gas; the process is energy-intensive and expensive. Hydrogen can also be produced from water using renewable electricity, but this approach is even more expensive than using natural gas.
Graham Hutchings at the University of Cardiff, UK, and his colleagues have developed an alternative method that relies on a catalyst made of platinum and iridium to extract hydrogen from bioethanol and water, without releasing any carbon dioxide. The bioethanol used in the process can be made from waste plant material, Hutchings says.
“We don’t make CO2, and so we are not making something that is an environmental burden,” says Hutchings. “We are taking a biologically sustainable source of carbon and hydrogen, and we are turning that into renewable hydrogen and renewable acetic acid. That’s quite neat.”