Farmer’s son develops new technic for hydrogen generation useful to replace petrol, diesel

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, Dec 20:

A farmer’s son Dr Dhanaji Jawale has developed a new method for hydrogen generation by splitting water molecules useful to produce alternative energy resources to replace the current energy source of petrol and diesel. The research is in the preliminary stage currently.

Talking to this newspaper Dr Dhanaji who is in France pursuing a prestigious research Post-Doctoral Fellowship (PDF) said that in the context of renewable energies, hydrogen is regarded not only as a clean and sustainable carrier but also as the main alternative to carbon-based fuels. The PDF was awarded and sponsored by President of France, Emmanual Macron under ‘Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA) project in 2019.

The title of his research is “Carbon Nanotube Polyoxometalate Nanohybrids For the Conversion and Storage of Low- Carbon Energy” being carried out in Universite’ Paris-Sacaly of France.

He is the only candidate from India to get selected for the fellowship. He was born in a farmer’s family at Nagur village in Lohara tehsil of Osmanabad district and completed postgraduate in Chemistry and Ph D from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in 2011. Currently, he works as an Assistant Professor at National College of Mumbai.

“A team led by has developed the material for hydrogen generation from the splitting of water molecule and is cheaper than currently useful ‘platinum but the cost is very high. The role of material underwent for redox type of reaction during this journey evolution of hydrogen occurred and the material was stable for more than years we can reuse and recycle for many times,” he said.

Dr Jawale said that The depletion of fossil fuels, oil, coal and gas, urges scientists to provide solutions regarding alternative energies.

“The use of electricity is bound to increase in the next decade in the transportation field. Green fuels, such as hydrogen will be extensively developed. The high demand of energy has led to a massive upsurge of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. This has raised the question of how to reduce the amounts of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

“To limit carbon dioxide emissions, the development of renewable low carbon energy sources is of key importance. Solar energy is the most abundant and readily available but is diffuse and intermittent, and hence needs to be collected and converted into usable electrical energy. So, endeavour to develop a new method capable of producing reliable energy vectors such as dihydrogen from abundant resources, such as water.

The existing methods for the production of hydrogen from water rely on the use of Platinum which is rare and very expensive. Our project aims at developing new catalytic systems, based on abundant and affordable materials, to improve the production of hydrogen. Our purpose is to study the performances of a nanohybrid system composed of a nickel-based inorganic polyoxometalate electro- catalyst combined with an efficient carbon nanotube electron relay,” he said.

Dr Jawale said that he received support from Niranjan Hiranandani (Provost, HSNC University-Mumbai), Kishu Mansukhani (President, HSNC Board), Dr Neha Jagtiani (Principal, National College) and Dinesh Panjwani (Secretary, HSNC Board).