Hydrogen catalyst analysis

Download brochure

Hydrogen can significantly aid in decarbonization by serving as a clean energy carrier, reducing reliance on fossil fuels across various sectors:

  • Transportation: Hydrogen fuel cells power vehicles – light and heavy-duty – with water vapor as the only emission
  • Industry: Steel production, chemical manufacturing, and refining can reduce their carbon footprint substantially using green hydrogen
  • Buildings and Power: Hydrogen can be burned for heating or used in fuel cells to generate electricity, reducing dependence on carbon-intensive systems

Hydrogen supports over 60% of high GHG-emitting applications and is projected to contribute more than 20% of global carbon abatement by 2050, making it essential to a net-zero future.

Explore

Fuel cells

Solutions to aid the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology
Fuel cells

Understanding hydrogen catalysts

Hydrogen catalysts are critical for enhancing the efficiency of hydrogen production, storage, and utilization. Their roles span several technologies:

  • Electrolysis: Platinum and iridium oxide catalysts split water into hydrogen and oxygen
  • Photocatalysis: Titanium dioxide-based systems harness sunlight for hydrogen production
  • Steam reforming: Nickel catalysts convert methane into hydrogen
  • Fuel cells: Platinum and nickel enable the electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen
  • Industrial Uses: Catalysts drive processes such as ammonia synthesis and hydrocracking

A sustainable, hydrogen-based economy

Key components of a hydrogen-based economy are:

Hydrogen production

Technologies:

  • Conventional: Steam methane reforming (SMR) produces H2 and CO2
  • Green Alternative: Electrolysis powered by renewable energy creates clean "green hydrogen"

Materials:Adsorbents, membranes, catalysts 

Measurement Goals: 

  • Maximize catalyst lifetime and optimize activity and dispersion 
  • Optimize adsorption/desorption cycles 
  • Determine CO2 adsorption 
  • Determine membrane pore sizes
Hydrogen Storage

Technologies

Hydrogen can be stored as:

  • Compressed gas
  • Liquefied hydrogen
  • Chemically bonded (metal hydrides, LOHCS, MOFs, zeolites, carbon)

Materials: Adsorbents, catalysts

Measurement Goals:

  • Evaluate H2 adsorption performance
  • Study catalyst efficiency and durability
Hydrogen applications

Technologies

Hydrogen is versatile:

  • Used in fuel cells for electricity generation
  • Burned for industrial heat
  • Acts as a reductant in metal production

Materials: Membranes, catalysts, adsorbents

Measurement Goals:

  • Characterize the catalyst active area via chemisorption
  • Optimize membrane pore structure
  • Study fuel cell performance and efficiency

Key instruments for catalyst and material characterization

Epsilon 1

Epsilon 1

Small, powerful and portable XRF analyzer

Epsilon 1

  • Rapid non-destructive elemental analysis of catalysts, supports, and adsorbents
  • Monitoring elemental composition for process optimization and quality control
  • Analyzing metal loading, homogeneity, dispersion, and contamination in advanced materials

3Flex

  • High performance adsorption analyzer for measuring surface area, pore size, and volume
  • Understand absorbent process cost using isoteric heat of adsorption
  • Optimize pore size to maximize uptake capacity

Catalyst analysis instruments

  • AutoChem - utilizes dynamic techniques to characterize the materials' active sites
  • 3Flex - offers physisorption and static/dynamic chemisorption for characterizing catalysts and their supports
  • ICCS - provides in-situ characterization to understand the effect of reaction conditions on the catalyst
  • Flow Reactor – benchtop reactor studies to understand and optimize catalyst performance
  • Aeris and Empyrean XRD - high-resolution crystallography for nanoparticle size
  • Mastersizer and Zetasizer – measure particle size and zeta potential
  • Epsilon Xline - investigate elemental composition homogeneity in catalyst-coated membranes

Aeris

The future is compact
Aeris

Empyrean

The intelligent diffractometer
Empyrean

Epsilon Xline

In-line control for continuous roll-to-roll processes
Epsilon Xline

Adsorbent and membrane instruments

  • 3Flex - high-performance adsorption analyzer for measuring surface area, pore size, and volume
  • BreakThrough Analyzer (BTA) - precise characterization of adsorbent or membrane under process-relevant conditions
  • AutoPore - mercury porosimetry analysis permits detailed porous material characterization
  • AccuPore – capillary flow porometry analyzes throughpore sizes in membranes
  • HPVA - static volumetric method to obtain high-pressure adsorption and desorption isotherms

Micromeritics AutoPore V

Density and porosimetry analysis for mesoporous and macroporous materials
Micromeritics AutoPore V

Micromeritics AccuPore

The easiest, most accurate and versatile measurement of through-porosity
Micromeritics AccuPore

Learn more about hydrogen catalyst analysis