Solar-powered Ni-Mo-P electrocatalysts for H2 production from agricultural bioresources
Green hydrogen, Circular economy, Life cycle analysis, bioresources
One of the biggest contemporary global challenges is understanding the interdependent relationship between water, energy and food. The increase in demand in one sector implies the depletion of others, therefore, the Nexus concept proposes the design of policies that bring solutions targeting the three sectors for more efficient and sustainable development. Furthermore, two approaches have proven to be quite relevant in recent times: the Circular Economy and the Bioeconomy. The Circular Economy is a cradle-to-cradle approach, where the journey of materials is a closed cycle: its outputs become inputs and, therefore, the term residue does not exist. A given industry by-product is transformed into a value-added resource for the same production chain or a second industry. While Bioeconomy envisages biological-based production with integrated material cycles and a focus on innovative processes. Therefore, this work aims to unite the two concepts, which are called biorefinery, based on the conversion of biomass residue into value-added compounds and the simultaneous production of clean energy (green hydrogen). The scientific community has dedicated itself to synthesizing electrodes with different configurations in search of better performance, in order to optimize the green hydrogen production process and make it even more sustainable. In this scenario, the present work foresees the study of new electrocatalysts based on the electrodeposition of Nickel, Molybdenum and Phosphorus.