Decarbonisation of fossil fuels: Microwave-promoted deep catalytic dehydrogenation of liquid alkanes

Hydrogen as an energy carrier promises a sustainable energy revolution. However, one of the greatest challenges for any future hydrogen economy is the necessity for large scale hydrogen storage and prodn. not involving concurrent CO2 prodn. The high intrinsic hydrogen content of liq.-​range alkane hydrocarbons (including diesel) offers a route to CO2-​free hydrogen prodn. through their catalytic deep dehydrogenation. We report here a means of rapidly liberating high-​purity hydrogen by microwave-​promoted catalytic dehydrogenation of liq. alkanes using Fe and Ni particles supported on silicon carbide. H2 prodn. selectivity from all evolved gases of some 98​%, is achieved with less than a fraction of a percent of adventitious CO and CO2. The major co-​product is solid, elemental carbon