(Image source from: msn.com)

In a major development, the Indian scientists developed a large-scale reactor that can produce enough amount of hydrogen using water and sunlight. This happened to be the first time in the world, hydrogen is being produced in a cost-effective manner on a large scale. The scientists of the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) developed the reactor. India has a target of 450 GW of renewable energy by the end of 2030. The process of photocatalytic water splitting is used to produce hydrogen.

Dr. Kamalakannan Kailasam the team leader of INST scientists told "It is the long-term persistent solution for the growing renewable energy needs and a low-cost economic process which will benefit society in the longer term. Thus significant efforts from scientists towards achieving this goal are utmost necessary and urgent need-of-the-hour". The developed reactor operates under natural sunlight and 6.1 lakh liters of hydrogen can be produced in 8 hours. An earth-abundant chemical named carbon nitrides is used as a catalyst to produce hydrogen.

There were several attempts made in the past but the team of INST were successful in producing large amount of hydrogen. They made a low-cost organic semiconductor in carbon nitrides. The electrons and holes are produced when the sunlight falls on the semiconductor. The work is supported by DST Nano Mission NATDP project. The work is published in ‘Journal of Cleaner Production’. They are in plans to obtain a patent for the technology and the process. Hydrogen that is generated in this manner can be used to generate electricity and power small gadgets.

By Siva Kumar