Research Projects

The modern world's energy demand is primarily met by fossil fuels, which are unsustainable due to their negative impacts on the planet's climate and ecosystem. Renewable energy sources, such as hydrogen, have emerged as a promising alternative to fossil fuels. However, the hydrogen economy faces challenges such as producing green hydrogen from sustainable resources and ensuring safe storage and transportation of hydrogen. The scientific community is working on developing technologies to improve the safe storage and transportation of hydrogen. One such method is using liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs), which can be stored and transported safely. LOHCs can release and store hydrogen gas through reversible dehydrogenation and hydrogenation, respectively, with the presence of a catalyst. This project proposal aims to develop eco-friendly, economical, and mild reaction-conditioning catalyst systems, including in situ-generated ruthenium catalyst systems incorporating hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) as a versatile additive/ligand. Preliminary results show that simple and commercially available ruthenium complexes can be used as catalysts. The objectives of this proposal include developing Ru-HMTA complexes and exploring their activities for dehydrogenation of LOHC systems, testing the dehydrogenation of various LOHC systems, and quantitatively measuring the hydrogen evolved from dyhydrogenation reactions for the application of these catalyst systems in hydrogen storage materials.