Streamlined hydrogen production from biomass

Hydrogen is playing an increasingly larger role in clean energy technologies and the emerging hydrogen economy. However, efficient and selective H₂ production from renewable resources is rare so far. Herein, we describe a dehydrogenation route that is applicable to various kinds of non-food-related biomass and daily waste, such as wheat straw, corn straw, rice straw, reed, bagasse, bamboo sawdust, cardboard and newspaper. H₂ yields up to 95% were achieved by a one-pot, two-step reaction with a 69 ppm molecularly defined iridium catalyst bearing an imidazoline moiety from formic acid, which was in turn obtained via a 1 v% dimethyl sulfoxide-promoted hydrolysis-oxidation of biomass. Formation of the unwanted side products CO and CH₄ was no more than 22 and 2 ppm, respectively, while CO₂ was captured as carbonate. The resulting hydrogen gas can be directly applied in proton exchange membrane fuel cells.