Researchers at Kyushu University in Japan were seeking complex, expensive methods to extract hydrogen from methanol:
“In what can only be considered incredible serendipity, we found in one of our control experiments mixing methanol, iron ions, and sodium hydroxide, and then irradiating it with UV light, generated a considerable amount of hydrogen gas,” [Takahiro Matsumoto, lead author and Associate Professor at Kyushu University‘s Faculty of Engineering] added.
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The simple iron mixture produced 921 mmol of hydrogen per hour per gram of catalyst. That is a technical way of saying it works just as well as the most expensive, high-tech catalysts.
The process, known as alcohol dehydrogenation, releases the hydrogen stored in compounds such as alcohols, such as methanol.