Page 66 - Book of Abstracts 2020

8 Biannual Conference on Chemistry - CHEM 08
th

Enhancing Formic Acid Electro-Oxidation at Pt-modified Nanocatalyst
for Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells
Islam M. Al-Akraa *, Ahmad M. Mohammad
1,
2
1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The British University
in Egypt, Cairo 11837, Egypt, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo
2
University, Cairo 12613, Egypt. Email: islam.ahmed@bue.edu.eg.
ABSTRACT

The security of clean modern energy services is essential for socioeconomic
development and poverty eradication. Right now, the capability to secure
energy from green, affordable, and accessible resources stands among the
important criteria measuring the potential strength of governments and the
living standard they offer. For long time, fossil fuels (coal, petroleum and
natural gas) represented the major source in the world energy production and
consumption. However, fossil fuels, which were principally formed by
anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms typically for millions of
years, are expected soon to be deficient or even vanished, particularly with the
rapid growth of world’s population, the increase in the living standard of whole
societies, and the urgency to launch new industries in developing countries that
ultimately exceed the production capacity of fossil fuels. In parallel, climate
legislations are continuously issued to reduce CO2 emissions that typically
associate burning of fossil fuels, and policy actions are taken to encourage
renewable energy-based industries. These all are stimulating a quick transition
into a new era dealing with renewable clean energy systems. In this regard, fuel
cells (FCs) appeared promising not only as a complimentary asset in renewable
plants to restore excess electricity that is typically saved in the form of hydrogen
by passing through electrolyzers, but also as power sources for several
1-6
stationary, portable and emergency backup power applications . In fact, the
enhanced efficiency, reliability, robustness, safety and moving flexibility of FCs
have made them recommended for these applications. In this study, formic acid
as a green fuel, that could be used in fuel cells, will be efficiently oxidized at
nanostructure-based catalysts.
References
1. Asal, Y. M.; Al-Akraa, I. M.; Mohammad, A. M.; El-Deab, M. S., International Journal of
Hydrogen Energy 2019, 44 (7), 3615-3624.
2. Asal, Y. M.; Al-Akraa, I. M.; Mohammad, A. M.; El-Deab, M. S., Journal of the Taiwan
Institute of Chemical Engineers 2019, 96, 169-175.
3. Al-Akraa, I. M.; Mohammad, A. M., Arabian Journal of Chemistry 2019.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2019.10.013.
4. Mohammad, A. M.; Al-Akraa, I. M.; El-Deab, M. S., International Journal of Hydrogen
Energy 2018, 43 (1), 139-149.
5. Al-Akraa, I. M.; Mohammad, A. M.; El-Deab, M. S.; El-Anadouli, B. E., International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2015, 40 (4), 1789-1794.
6. Al-Akraa, I. M.; Mohammad, A. M.; El-Deab, M. S.; El-Anadouli, B. E., Chemistry Letters
2011, 40 (12), 1374-1375.

BOOK OF ABSTRACTS CHEM 08 (2020) Page 65