As good as gold: new catalyst produces hydrogen peroxide for decentralised water purification

A team from Cardiff University’s Catalysis Institute, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed the new group of catalysts that have been published in Science.

“Using our new catalyst, we’ve created a method of efficiently producing H₂O₂ [hydrogen peroxide] on-demand in a quick, one-step process,” said co-author Dr Simon Freakley from the Cardiff Catalysis Institute.

“Being able to produce H₂O₂ directly opens up a whole host of possibilities, most notably in the field of water purification where it would be indispensable to be able to produce the chemical on-site where safe and clean drinking water is at a premium.”

In 2011 Global Industry Analysts, Inc. predicted the global market for hydrogen peroxide to reach 4.3 million metric tons by 2015. The chemical is usually manufactured via a large, multi-step process, which requires highly concentrated solutions of H₂O₂ to be transported before dilution at the point of use. Current uses of H₂O₂ include paper bleaching, disinfecting and water treatment and in the chemical synthesis industry.