Supported by a JHU SURPASS award, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Corey Oses and Avi Bregman of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab are developing a new type of reactor that can produce clean hydrogen fuel from water and heat at lower temperatures.
The Johns Hopkins SURPASS awards support cross-divisional teams comprising affiliates in the Whiting School of Engineering (WSE) and APL who are seeking to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. Oses’ and Bregman’s proposal—“ADD-H2: AI-Driven Discovery of High-Entropy H2 Generators”— was one of four chosen for this year’s grant cycle, which split $3.75 million between each recipient.
“We saw an opportunity in hydrogen since that’s where the energy market is headed in the next 25 years,” says Oses. “Hydrogen is incredibly abundant in the universe, but it’s always attached to something. If we can split it off into pure form and contain it well, we can use it as fuel for cars, houses, and more.”
The researchers aim to make hydrogen production more commercially viable. Currently, separating hydrogen from water (H2O) is challenging and requires electrolysis, which uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The team is exploring a different method to separate hydrogen without using electricity.
“We want to split hydrogen off from water using only heat, so there’s no longer a need for fossil fuels,” says Oses. “To do this, we need to develop a new type of heat catalyst that can perform the reaction at lower temperatures. We’ll be using AI to discover what works and how to optimize this process.”
Oses will use computer simulations to predict what will happen with water and heat in a reactor. The results should make the process efficient and cost-effective for potential consumers.
The SURPASS award will fund this project into 2025.