In this year’s Phase II photoelectrochemical hydrogen production research at the University of Hawaii, we have continued our emphasis on developing high-performance multi-junction hydrogen photoelectrodes based on low cost semiconductor and catalyst films. Significant progress was made in the advancement of amorphous silicon/germanium and copper indium gallium diselenide materials for solid-sta...

Hydrogen production has gained increasing attention as a potential energy carrier, which can utilize many forms of renewable energy, such as biomass, wind and direct solar power. It has increased its significance as fossil fuels are being used up at a high rate and energy security is of greater importance to the United States and many other countries. Furthermore, hydrogen production offers the...

BACKGROUND The production of hydrogen from biomass by fermentation is one of the routes that can contribute to a future sustainable hydrogen economy. Lignocellulosic biomass is an attractive feedstock because of its abundance, low production costs and high polysaccharide content. RESULTS Batch cultures of Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus and Thermotoga neapolitana produced hydrogen, carbo...

Photocatalytic water splitting is a natural but challenging chemical way of harnessing renewable solar power to generate clean hydrogen energy. Here we report a potential hydrogen-evolving photochemical molecular device based on a self-assembled ruthenium-palladium heterometallic coordination cage, incorporating multiple photo- and catalytic metal centres. The photophysical properties are inves...

The objective of this study was to investigate hydrogen production from alcohol wastewater by anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) under thermophillic operation. The ASBR unit used in this study had a liquid holding volume of 4 L and was operated at 6 cycles per day. The seed sludge taken from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket unit treating the same wastewater was boiled at 95 °C for 15 m...

Hydrogen gas has tremendous potential as an environmentally acceptable energy carrier for vehicles, but most hydrogen is generated from nonrenewable fossil fuels such as natural gas. Here, we show that efficient and sustainable hydrogen production is possible from any type of biodegradable organic matter by electrohydrogenesis. In this process, protons and electrons released by exoelectrogenic ...

A novel visible light-driven photocatalyst film, MoS₂/Ag/TiO₂, was synthesized on a glass-fiber membrane. The composite catalyst film had a multi-layer structure with Ag as nanoconjunctions between the MoS₂ and TiO₂ layers. The catalyst film performed well for both photocatalytic hydrogen production and organic degradation in a two-chamber photo-reactor under either solar or visible light. Hydr...

Hematoporphyrin derivative and light in the presence of cysteine or glutathione were found to convert oxygen to superoxide and hydrogen peroxide at pH less than approx. 6.5, while at pH greater than 6.5 no superoxide or hydrogen peroxide production was observed. However, at pH values greater than 6.5 the rate of oxygen consumption increased. This rate paralleled the acid dissociation curve of t...

Semi-solid state fermentation route of hydrogen production from agrowaste sugarcane bagasse was tried using the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas (BHU strain-1) and the non-photosynthetic Enterobacter aerogenes MTCC2822. The process seems an alternative to submerged fermentation that requires high volumes of nutrient broth. Bagasse (10 g) pre-hydrolyzed with NaOH (2%, w/v) was coated wi...

This paper presents the possible production of hydrogen and anti-hydrogen from p±and e∓beams merged in a long vacuum chamber (about 2500 m). In such a configuration with a beam kinetic energy for the p±around 100 KeV, the two key parameters are the density of the e∓beam and the temperature of the merged beams. The production rate is computed for several parameter sets and it is shown that it is...