PhD thesis defense to be held on July 10, 2024, at 14:00 (Virtually)
Picture Credit: Emmanouela Mangiorou
Thesis title: Hydrogen production from water at temperatures below 300°C using magnetite and Lorentz forces.
Abstract: The strong interest in the production of hydrogen as a low-carbon energy carrier is not new. In recent decades, a wide range of scientists have investigated the possibilities of hydrogen production from various sources, as well as its transport and storage. As well as its use for the provision of final energy services without emissions. Research on hydrogen has largely focused on the use of fuel cells in the transport sector. What is different these days is both the range of possibilities from the use of hydrogen that is being discussed and the intense interest shown by the respective governments of all places for fuels that do not emit gaseous pollutants. Hydrogen is increasingly a key element of mainstream energy discussions in almost all countries, with hydrogen being seen as a potentially valuable and wide-ranging fuel for the future of energy.
Today's coalition of voices in favor of hydrogen includes renewable electricity suppliers, industrial gas producers, electric and natural gas utilities, automakers, oil and gas companies, major engineering firms, and the governments of most of the world's largest economies. It also includes those who use or could use hydrogen as a raw material for industrial production and not just for energy. In 2017, the Hydrogen Council was created to bring together relevant private sector actors. Its management team now has 33 members at CEO and chairman level and 21 supporting members. The possibility that these influential actors will work together to ensure project delivery and market development is an important indication that hydrogen may now have the kind of committed cross-sector support it needs for the future.
In this doctoral thesis, the analytical model of the effect of Lorentz forces on the enhancement of hydrogen production, which is produced by thermal hydrolysis on an iron oxide surface, is presented. Dropping water molecules onto the surface of an iron oxide bead results in the release of oxygen ions due to the breaking of existing bonds at relatively high temperatures. These ions can be directed from the surface into the interior of the oxide, towards the bulk of the iron oxide, due to the Lorentz forces which are perpendicular to the surface of the magnetic bead, thus allowing the release of new oxygen ions from the water molecules. Lorentz forces are created by the interaction between a properly oriented in-plane magnetic induction, perpendicular to an also applied in-plane electric field. The mobility of oxygen ions is enabled due to the significant amount of oxygen vacancies (VOs) in the bulk iron oxide and is modeled analytically as a diffusion mechanism, dominated by Lorentz-assisted displacement.
Supervisor: Professor Evangelos Hristoforou
PhD Student: Emmanouela Mangiorou