Green Hydrogen Production Via Electrochemical Conversion of Components from Alkaline Carbohydrate Degradation

Water electrolysis is a promising approach for the sustainable production of hydrogen, however, the unfavorable thermodynamics and sluggish kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are associated with high anodic potentials. To lower the required potentials, an effective strategy is proposed to substitute OER with partial oxidation of degradation products of carbohydrate origin from the waste stream of a chemical pulping industry. In this work, two different catalytic materials e PdNi and NiO are investigated comparatively to understand their catalytic performance for the oxidation of carbohydrate alkaline degradation products (CHADs). PdNi can catalyze CHADs with low potential requirements (0.11 V vs. Hg/HgO at 150 mA cm2 ) but is limited to current densities opportunities to study earth-abundant electrocatalysts to efficiently oxidize biomass-derived substances.