Hydrogen through microbial SMFC-MEC cell.

Work Package 2A

The biomass residue developed in WP1 will be used as the ingredient in WP2 for further extraction of H₂ via two distinct routes. In WP2A, an assembly of SMFC/MEC will be employed for biohybrid system-driven H₂ production. The main goal is developing an energy input free SMFC-MEC system for pure H₂ production and bioelectroremediation of liquified biomass derived from WP1 and wastewater. AI/ML enabled acceleration platform will be used to develop and deploy novel cost-effective and environmentally sustainable materials with suitable topology to enhance microbial growth, having higher resistance to pH variations and better electrical properties for use in this optimized SMFC/MEC system.

Hydrogen through photo-catalysis.

Work Package 2B

In WP 2B, the biomass waste coming from WP 1 and WP 2A is sent to the photocatalyst panels that produce sunlight-driven H₂ by just using sunlight, without the need of any electrical bias. To further advance the efficiency of H₂ generation at scale, rational insights on the photocatalyst design and largearea panel fabrication will be obtained through AI/ML enabled material discovery acceleration platform.

Hydrogen storage in materials and cylinders.

Work Package 4

The objective of the hydrogen storage subgroup is to come up with a prototype of a storage unit that has the capability of storing hydrogen in both material form (WP4A) as well as cylinder form(WP4B). The material-based prototype would have a very high gravimetric capacity, good kinetics, would work at low pressures and temperature conditions which have not been hitherto achieved. Additionally, the material would be cost-effective such that it is amenable to scalable synthesis. Both adsorption and absorption based materials will be investigated. A device would be fabricated to incorporate the material developed. The high-pressure storage system will be state-of-theart, which is capable of withstanding very high pressures (700 bar). The material, the micro-structure and fabrication technique for the same will be developed a part of the project. Virtual prototype of any size and shape and working pressure will be designed, fabricated, and tested using the characteristics and property of materials developed. Virtual testing for the preliminary tests will record the response of the device in situations of accidents due to fire or burst. The results of virtual testing will be used to reform the device hereby reducing the risks of sudden failures in emergency situations.

AI/ML MAP Platform Development.

Work Package 5

WP5 is tasked with the development of the AI/ML enabled Material Acceleration Platform. The tasks will include database and literature search for process conditions and catalysts/photocatalysts/ materials for biomass gasification, SMFC-MEC, and photocatalytic conversion of biomass and residual biomass to H₂ , datamining of materials/catalysts for H₂ storage, dopant data search for carbon based high surface area adsorption system, Metal alloy-based hybrid absorption system, and Composite materials design and fabrication conditions data search for high-pressure storage vessels. The project tasks also include formulation and development of predictive ML models for existing catalysts/ materials, H₂ storage materials/catalysts & high-pressure composite storage vessels for understanding structural/composition-property relationships.