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Gil Classen

Research

Fossil fuels are the main energy source covering the ever-increasing demand of the worldwide population. With dwindling resources and the ever-present threat of climate change alternative energy sources are needed. Renewable sources like wind and solar energy can be used instead of fossil fuels but both are heavily dependent on the weather. In order to counteract changing weather conditions efficient storage media, have to be found. One possible solution is the chemical storage using hydrogen which can then be used in fuel cells in order to produce electricity.

One way to store and distribute this hydrogen is with the use of organic chemicals like formic acid. The hydrogen can be released by the continuous and catalytic formic acid decomposition in the gas phase. The main focus of this research is the optimization of catalytic systems to obtain clean (CO-free) hydrogen which can be used for energy production in fuel cells.