NAGANO, Japan – Last month, Japanese researchers from Shinshu University in Nagano developed a two-step method that is dramatically more efficient at generating hydrogen, a clean and renewable fuel, from a photocatalytic reaction. The team, however, indicated that they needed to engineer an improvement of the technology’s efficiency to make it practically useful.

This improvement may finally be here!

Access and conversion to hydrogen

University of Strathclyde researchers have now suggested that solar energy can now be easily accessed and converted into hydrogen thanks to a new innovation, according to a statement by the institution published last week.

The new study indicates that using a photocatalyst under simulated sunlight, when loaded with an appropriate metal catalyst (in this case iridium), promotes the decomposition of water into widely usable hydrogen.

This is a great development in the fight against climate change as, when used in a fuel cell, hydrogen does not emit any greenhouse gasses. The gas can therefore help decarbonize sectors such as shipping and transportation, where it can be used as a fuel, as well as in manufacturing industries.

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