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Research

Efficient H2 from Formic Acid / Formate

Built a real-time operando pH setup and used it to find the formic acid–formate ratio that maximizes H2 output.

  • Catalysis
Efficient H₂ from Formic Acid / Formate schematic

Background

Formic acid–formate mixtures are liquid hydrogen carriers, and their ratio sets the pH that governs catalyst activity. Earlier work measured pH only before or after the reaction, missing the drift in between — so optimal conditions were hard to design.

Formic acid is also the proton source for the acid-mediated NaBH4hydrolysis — see Sodium Borohydride for Hydrogen Mobility & Compression.

What I did

  • Led the experimental design of the formic acid / formate ratio study.
  • Synthesized and characterized the catalyst.
  • Built the operando pH-monitoring setup — live tracking inside the reactor.
  • Ran the reaction product analysis and wrote the manuscript.

Outcomes

  • Real-time pH tracking located the acid–formate ratio that maximizes H2 output.
  • Co-first author, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2022).
  • Best Poster Presentation Award, Korean Hydrogen and New Energy Society (KHNES), May 2022.

Related publications

Strategy for Efficient H2 Production from a Mixture of Formic Acid and Formate using Operando pH Measurements

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2022

Co-first author

Contribution: Conceptualization, experiments, catalyst characterization, reaction product analysis, manuscript writing

“Real-time pH tracking inside the reactor located the acid–formate ratio that maximizes H2 output.”

doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c06603