Latest Developments in Hydrogen Standards and the Pyrolysis of Biomass

Hydrogen Standards 

Furthermore, there are a few updates in standards for hydrogen fuel cells. It has been shown that even very low concentrations of gas impurities can cause non-negligible damages to fuel cell components. Thus, the publication of ISO 14687, in which multiple molecules have been identified as hazardous and highly restrictive concentration-thresholds determined. The standard establishes a few principles; in particular, when internal combustion engines can tolerate low-quality hydrogen, it is very important to inject high-quality hydrogen to prevent catalyst poisoning. 

Pyrolysis of Biomass 

New research suggests that bio-oils obtained from lignocellulosic biomass pyrolysis could be a suitable replacement for petroleum-based fuels. At the molecular level, these materials are highly complex mixtures comprising thousands of species, covering a large range of mass and polarity. They contain significant amounts of oxygenated compounds and water – which is responsible for corrosiveness and storage issues – as well as a low energetic density. Consequently, they cannot be directly used as biofuels, but must undergo upgrading processes in order to obtain a material whose physicochemical properties are close to conventional fuels.   

To improve these processes, deep molecular characterization of upgraded bio-oils is an absolute necessity. Some studies of bio-oils involve direct-infusion, ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry, which allows researchers to detect and assign thousands of molecular formulae, but only isobaric level is well-described by such an approach, and neither structural nor isomeric information is obtained. Since this latter dimension was shown to be relevant in the catalytic process of petroleum fractions, researchers are currently developing an analytical method which combines supercritical-fluid chromatography and ion-mobility mass spectrometry.