Blog 1: 6/2/17
Hi there, my name is Dr Becky Docherty and I am a Knowledge Exchange Scientist in the Department of Chemistry here at The University of Liverpool. I have quite an unusual job title; it basically means that I work on research projects that will have an impact outside the lab, many of which are focused on ways to improve the environment.
It has been an exciting past few months for my colleagues and I! I am part of a consortium that has been awarded £2M by Innovate UK through the Newton Fund, to investigate the challenges of developing mass-market, hydrogen-fuelled vehicles for China, in particular we will be focused on commercial vehicles such as transit vans and heavy goods vehicles.
As part of this research we will be exploring greener ways to produce the hydrogen, and developing new methods for how to store it safely. These are key components for the successful development of a hydrogen economy to match the specific needs of a Chinese city.
This is a challenging project that will involve partners from industry as well as academia, and the members include: a local Merseyside SME, ULMECo; a Chinese company, Hubei Swan Coatings; the Wuhan New Energy Institute at The Huazhong University of Science and Technology; and The University of Liverpool.
Our contribution to the project will be the development of an organic photocatalyst that is capable of efficiently splitting water into molecular hydrogen and oxygen; a process that is vital for the production of hydrogen fuel. This isn't a new idea, as there are many such photocatalysts in existence; however, the problem is that most of them are only active in the ultraviolet part of the solar spectrum, a region that accounts for only 3% of the energy that is available from the Sun at the Earth’s surface. We aim to make a photocatalyst that will be highly active under visible and near-infrared light, and will therefore be much more efficient at harnessing the energy from the Sun. Also, many of the photocatalysts that currently exist contain precious metals such as platinum and ruthenium, and their scarcity and high cost hampers their use in any practical application. As such it will be essential that any photocatalyst that we develop is cheap, sustainable and suitable for mass production.
The motivation for this project is to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality. Like many of you I have been shocked by the news articles in recent years describing the poor air quality in many Chinese cities, and the terrible affect that this has been having on the health of the general public. I hope that the adoption of hydrogen as a fuel will go some way to improving this situation, and I am proud to be part of the team that is developing a solution to make this possible.
Becky will be providing updated blog posts as the project progresses.