INNOVATION: IIT Guwahati researchers developing solar-powered hydrogen generators
Guwahati: Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati researchers are developing cost-efficient materials to generate energy-rich hydrogen from water using sunlight leading to cost-effective solar-powered hydrogen generators.
Pursuant of worldwide efforts in developing clean and renewable energy, the IIT-G researchers are developing novel materials that can use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, said a release from the Institute on Monday.
“These materials are much cheaper than the ‘noble metals’ currently used and could lead to cost-effective solar-powered hydrogen generators”, stated the release.
On the area of research for the team from the Department of Chemistry at IIT Guwahati led by Dr Mohammad Qureshi, it said besides the commonly known ‘solar cells’ converting light directly into electrical energy, there is another type of sunlight-powered energy conversion system called ‘PhotoElectroChemical’ (PEC) that directly produce fuels in combination of electrical energy.
PEC cells use solar energy to split simple and safe compounds such as water into hydrogen and oxygen, hydrogen being a high-energy fuel that can be stored and used as needed, the release said.
