IIT Delhi researchers develop pilot plant to generate Hydrogen from water at low cost

Hydrogen gas, a viable choice as a renewable substitute for fossil fuels, can help mitigate emissions.

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Delhi) has developed a pilot plant to generate hydrogen fuel from water at a low cost. The project has been undertaken under the supervision of Prof Sreedevi Upadhyayula, Prof Ashok N Bhaskarwar and Prof Anupam Shukla from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Prof Saswata Bhattacharya, Department of Physics.

IIT Delhi team has successfully split water a process is known as  Sulphur-Iodine (SI) thermochemical hydrogen cycle to generate low-cost, clean hydrogen fuel for industrial consumption. Hydrogen gas, a viable choice as a renewable substitute for fossil fuels, can help mitigate emissions. One of the key challenges faced by the IIT Delhi researchers was to design a suitable catalyst for the energy-intensive, corrosive step of Sulphuric acid conversion to Sulphur-dioxide and oxygen. The in-house catalyst meets these criteria and is now patented, and a process based on these is being developed and demonstrated in the Institute.

She further said that her team has demonstrated the entire integrated closed-loop pilot plant level at IIT Delhi. “We have employed a combined state-of-the-art experimental and theoretical approach to design an efficient and cost-effective heterogeneous catalyst (for the Sulphuric acid decomposition step of S-I cycle for hydrogen production) functional under high temperature, corrosive conditions while also being cost-effective”, she added.

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