Facile production of hydrogen from petroleum

Petroleum has long been a relatively inexpensive, abundant, and convenient source of energy.  One of the biggest drawbacks to using it as fuel is that copious amounts of carbon dioxide are produced, which further contributes to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  Researchers in the UK, including Prof Sir John M. Thomas – a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Department, and Saudi Arabia have taken a step toward solving that problem by demonstrating a CO₂-free method for converting petroleum samples to high-purity hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel, and solid carbon, which can be stored underground safely or used commercially.  Currently, most hydrogen comes from steam reforming methane.  This is an energy-intensive process that produces a lot of CO₂. The new method uses microwaves to directly energize a low-cost iron nanoparticle catalyst, as opposed to using conventional heating, in which the heated fuel activates the catalyst. Tests on diesel, gasoline, and methane show that the microwaves immediately generate gas, more than 90% of which is hydrogen.  For heavy crude samples, the purity is roughly 80%. In contrast, the same catalyst, heated conventionally, converted diesel to 65% hydrogen and a mixture of alkanes, alkenes, and other gases.