Question : Which of the following institution & person involved in new method of producing hydrogen from water using magnets ?
a. A team of researchers from IIT Bombay led by Prof. C. Subramaniam
b. A team of researchers from IIT Kanpur led by Prof. Anubha Goel
c. A team of researchers from IIT Palakkad led by Prof. B. Lohani
d. A team of researchers from IIT Madras led by Prof. Mukesh Sharma
Ans. a.
Related facts —
- A team of researchers from IIT Bombay led by Prof. C. Subramaniam have recently(August 2021) come up with an innovative route that provides viable solutions to many challenges.
- Key Points —
- New method of producing hydrogen from water using magnets shows energy-efficient route to manufacturing of the fuel.
- It involves electrolysis of water in the presence of an external magnetic field.
- In this method, the same system that produces 1 ml of hydrogen gas required 19% lower energy to produce 3 ml of hydrogen in the same time.
- This is achieved by synergistically coupling the electric and magnetic fields at the catalytic site.
- The simple approach also provides the capability to retrofit any existing electrolyser (that uses electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen) with external magnets without drastic change in the design, leading to increased energy efficiency of H2 production.
- This proof-of-concept demonstration for producing hydrogen has been published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
- The electrocatalytic material — cobalt-oxide nanocubes that are dispersed over hard-carbon based nanostructured carbon florets, is of prime importance to achieve this effect and was developed with the support of the Department of Science & Technology’s Material for Energy Storage program at Technology Mission Division.
- It was put to use for magneto-electrocatalysis through the DST-SERB grant.
- The interface between the carbon and cobalt oxide is key to magneto-electrocatalysis.
- It is advantageous as it forms a system that does not require the constant presence of the external magnetic field and is able to sustain the magnetisation for prolonged time periods; the magnitude of the enhancements achieved (650% increase in current density, 19% lowering of energy required and a 3-fold increase in volumetric hydrogen production rate) is unparalleled, the intermittent magnetic field required is similar to what a fridge magnet can provide.