[HN Gopher] Coupling furfural oxidation for H2 production using ...
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       Coupling furfural oxidation for H2 production using silicon
       photoelectrodes
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2025-05-09 00:26 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | isoprophlex wrote:
       | Maybe I'm missing something crucial but they make two moles of H2
       | in a PEC cell without needing a significant bias voltage, so far
       | so good...
       | 
       | ... but to do so, they sacrifice one mole of furfural?! Maybe
       | I've been out of the game for too long but requiring such a
       | complex organic as input isn't viable at all for large scale H2
       | production. What's more, IIRC aqueous furfural oxidation is
       | exothermic and spontaneous at standard conditions; the whole
       | photocell might be a facade in a molecular pyramid scheme.
       | 
       | I'd love to be proven wrong though...
        
         | wbl wrote:
         | Furfural is produced on a massive scale from dehydration of
         | plant matter, and lots of feedstocks exist. I'm not sure why
         | furfural dispropriation to furfurol and furfuric acid is
         | preferred over the oxidization in current industrial practice.
        
           | Calwestjobs wrote:
           | replacing one reactor for another makes sense if new reactor
           | is more efficient, energetically or does not produce "waste"
           | they had to get rid of/no use for.
           | 
           | if this is case here i do not know, i do not work in that
           | area.
        
         | Calwestjobs wrote:
         | If furoic acid can be stored economically then for industries
         | needing furoic acid and H2 this can maybe be useful. So if
         | there is 1/2 Mt of FA per year need, that means there can be a
         | lot of hydrogen created as well.
         | 
         | (they can even use H2 for "primitive" inputs like burning it to
         | provide process heat, like for example some reactors generating
         | sulfuric acid generate H2 as a "waste" which is used in helping
         | to distill said sulfuric acid in next step.)
         | 
         | Paper states that "exothermic heat" is consumed so cell is not
         | heating up too much.
        
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