Research

Our catalyst research focuses on leveraging novel reaction sequences which allow for more efficient harvesting of solar energy. We are especially focussing on sequences in which multiple photons of different wavelengths are used by a single catalyst. To develop efficient catalysts, we are combining material synthesis, photocatalytic measurements, kinetic, spectroscopic and computational methods.

Process Development

To enable the scalable deployment of photocatalytic water splitting, we are developing simple and low-cost “baggie” reactor systems, which are filled with photocatalyst/water mixtures. Irradiation leads to the production of hydrogen, which is collected in the baggie reactors and purified downstream to obtain pure hydrogen gas. This simple approach allows for harvesting of solar energy across large areas, enabling industrial-level hydrogen production in the future.

To guide catalyst and process development, we are performing quantitiative economic/sustainability assessment of hydrogen production using techno-economic and life-cycle analysis. For this, we are continously developing the “pyH2A” Python package. The assessment results highlight key parameters and provide quantitative targets for the other research areas, aligning them with our goal of reaching scalable hydrogen production systems.