Hydrogen storage in liquid organic hydride: Producing hydrogen catalytically from methylcyclohexane

Hydrogen storage for stationary and mobile applications is an expanding research topic. One of the more promising hydrogen storage techniques relies on the reversibility and high selectivity of liquid organic hydrides, in particular, methylcyclohexane (MCH). The use of liquid organic hydrides in hydrogen storage also provides high gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen density, low potential risk, and low capital investment because it is largely compatible with the current transport infrastructure. Despite its technical, economical, and environmental advantages, the concept of hydrogen storage in liquid organic carriers has not been commercially established because of technical limitations related to the amount of energy required to extract the hydrogen from liquid organic hydride and the insufficient stability of the dehydrogenation catalyst. This paper provides a review for the effort that has been directed toward the development of this concept over the past few decades and mainly focuses on the catalytic production of hydrogen from MCH. The topics that have been covered are the kinetics of MCH dehydrogenation over Pt/Al2O3 and Pt-Re/Al2O3 catalysts, the kinetics of catalyst deactivation, the thermodynamic equilibrium in MCH dehydrogenation, and the sulfur impact on the MCH dehydrogenation reaction. © 2011 American Chemical Society.