Self-Sustainable Production of Hydrogen, Chemicals, and Energy from Renewable Alcohols by Electrocatalysis

The selective and simultaneous production of hydrogen and chemicals from renewable alcohols, such as ethanol, glycerol and ethylene glycol can be accomplised by means of electrolyzers in which the anode electrocatalyst is appropriately designed to promote the partial and selective oxidation of the alcohol in the electrolyzers described herein the production of 1 kg of hydrogen from aqueous ethanol occurs with one-third the amount of energy required by a traditional H(2)O(2) electrolyzer, by virtue of the much lower oxygen in alkaline media (E(0) = 0.10 V vs. 1.23 V). The self sustainabiltiy of H(2) production is ensured by the simultaneous production of 25 kg of potassium acetate for every kg of H(2) if the promoting co-electrolyte is KOH.