摘要
Hydrogen technologies and fuel cells offer an alternative and improved solution for a decarbonised energy future.Fuel cells are electrochemical converters;transforming hydrogen (or energy sources containing hydrogen) and oxygen directly into electricity.The hydrogen fuel cell,invented in 1839,permits the generation of electrical energy with high efficiency through a non-combustion,electrochemical process and,importantly,without the emission ofits point of use.Hitherto,despite numerous efforts to exploit the obvious attractions of hydrogen technologies and hydrogen fuel cells,various challenges have been encountered,some of which are reviewed here.Now,however,given the exigent need to urgently seek low-carbon paths for humankind’s energy future,numerous countries are advancing the deployment of hydrogen technologies and hydrogen fuel cells not only for transport,but also as a means of the storage of excess renewable energy from,for example,wind and solar farms.Furthermore,hydrogen is also being blended into the natural gas supplies used in domestic heating and targeted in the decarbonisation of critical,large-scale industrial processes such as steel making.We briefly review specific examples in countries such as Japan,South Korea and the People’s Republic of China,as well as selected examples from Europe and North America in the utilization of hydrogen technologies and hydrogen fuel cells.
基金
Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas FRS FREng,Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy,University of Cambridge.He is one of the founders of solid-state chemistry and the surface and materials chemistry of solids.He was one of the first chemists in the world to use electron microscopy as a chemical tool,which he initiated in the University of Wales(Bangor)in 1964.He has made numerous studies in heterogeneous catalysis and made significant contributions to the study of minerals,especially silicates,zeolites and clays as well as graphite and diamond.For his contributions to geochemistry,a new mineral,Meurigite,was named in his honour.He was once head of Physical Chemistry in the University of Cambridge and Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
Corresponding author::Peter P.Edwards FRS ML holds the Statutory Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at Oxford and is the Co-Director of the KACST-Oxford Centre of Excellence in Petrochemicals,also at Oxford.He has previously held positions at Birmingham(Professor of Chemistry and of Materials),Cambridge(Lecturer in Chemistry and Director of Studies in Chemistry,Jesus College)and Cornell(British Fulbright Scholar and National Science Foundation Fellow).He was Co-Founder of the firstever UK Interdisciplinary Research Centre,that in Superconductivity at Cambridge and the UK Sustainable Hydrogen Energy Consortium(UKSHEC).He has been Chair of the European Research Council Advanced Investigators Award Panel on Chemical Synthesis and Advanced Materials.Edwards is Fellow of the Royal Society
Einstein Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Member,German Academy of Sciences,International Honorary Member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences,International Member of the American Philosophical Society,and Member of the Academia Europaea.His current major interests include:Targeted reconstruction of plastic waste to hydrogen and starting monomers,converting carbon dioxide to carbon-neutral fuels and Green hydrogen from fossil hydrocarbon fuels,E-mail address:peter.edwards@chem.ox.ac.uk。
