Researchers discover way to store hydrogen using lignin jet fuel

Bin Yang, professor in WSU’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering, stands with Andrew Lipton, scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, next to a nuclear magnetic resonance instrument used in experiments on new sustainable fuels (photo by Andrea Starr and Eddie Pablo, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

January 27, 2025 – An international team of scientists has discovered a way to store and release volatile hydrogen using lignin-based jet fuel that could open new pathways for sustainable energy production.

In a new study in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Washington State University Professor Bin Yang and colleagues demonstrated that a type of lignin-based jet fuel they developed can chemically bind hydrogen in a stable liquid form. The research has many potential applications in fuels and transportation and could ultimately make it easier to harness hydrogen’s potential as a high energy and zero emissions fuel source.

The research was published earlier this month in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy under the title ‘In-situ dehydrogenation of lignin-based jet fuel: A novel and sustainable liquid organic hydrogen carrier’.

It’s online>

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