Raw biomass electroreforming coupled to green hydrogen generation

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 2008
• Main Authors: Zhao, Hu, Lu, Dan, Wang, Jiarui, Tu, Wenguang, Wu, Dan, Koh, See Wee, Gao, Pingqi, Xu, Zhichuan J., Deng, Sili, Zhou, Yan, You, Bo, Li, Hong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 31-03-2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/131; 140/146; 140/58; 147/135; 639/166/898; 639/638/224/685; 639/638/77/886; 82/16; Acetates - chemistry; Acetates - metabolism; Acetic acid; Anodizing; Biomass; Biopolymers; Chemical evolution; Chitin; Chitin - chemistry; Chitin - metabolism; Coupling; Electrodes; Electrolysis; Electrolysis - instrumentation; Electrolysis - methods; Energy consumption; Green hydrogen; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen; Hydrogen - chemistry; Hydrogen - metabolism; Hydrogen production; Models, Chemical; Molecular Structure; multidisciplinary; Oxidation; Oxidation-Reduction; Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Renewable Energy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; Sustainability
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22250-9

Despite the tremendous progress of coupling organic electrooxidation with hydrogen generation in a hybrid electrolysis, electroreforming of raw biomass coupled to green hydrogen generation has not been reported yet due to the rigid polymeric structures of raw biomass. Herein, we electrooxidize the most abundant natural amino biopolymer chitin to acetate with over 90% yield in hybrid electrolysis. The overall energy consumption of electrolysis can be reduced by 15% due to the thermodynamically and kinetically more favorable chitin oxidation over water oxidation. In obvious contrast to small organics as the anodic reactant, the abundance of chitin endows the new oxidation reaction excellent scalability. A solar-driven electroreforming of chitin and chitin-containing shrimp shell waste is coupled to safe green hydrogen production thanks to the liquid anodic product and suppression of oxygen evolution. Our work thus demonstrates a scalable and safe process for resource upcycling and green hydrogen production for a sustainable energy future.
The scale-up of the coupling of water electroreduction (HER) with organic electrooxidation remains challenging. Here the authors address this challenge by coupling HER with electrooxidation of raw biomass chitin, cogenerating acetate and green hydrogen safely at high current density.