Soressa Abera Chala and Carsten Streb, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, Bing Joe Hwang, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan and National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC), Hsinchu, Taiwan, and colleagues have developed a hybrid water electrolysis catalyst that replaces oxygen formation with glycerol oxidation, producing hydrogen and useful chemicals at the same time. Replacing the challenging and wasteful oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with economically viable alternatives such as the selective glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) has so far remained a major challenge because the simultaneous control of reactivity, selectivity, and stability is difficult.

The researchers have built a single-site copper–palladium (Cu–Pd) catalyst, where individual metal atoms are precisely anchored on a carbon–nitrogen framework. The Cu–Pd catalyst converts glycerol efficiently, mainly into formate and other small organic molecules, while staying stable for almost six days of continuous operation. Palladium helps bind hydroxyl groups in a way that prevents unwanted carbon–carbon bond breaking, avoiding catalyst poisoning by carbon monoxide–like species.

Formate and hydrogen are valuable raw materials, while glycerol is a low-value byproduct of biodiesel production. Formates are usually produced from petroleum, but the corresponding process is associated with the emission of large amounts of CO₂. The new method can be operated with sustainable electricity and does not produce CO₂. 

According to the researchers this approach lowers the energy cost of hydrogen production and turns a low-value biodiesel byproduct into valuable chemicals. It shows how carefully placed single metal atoms can control reactions better than traditional bulk metal catalysts.

• Molecular Bottom-Up Design of Single-Site Copper-Palladium Catalysts for Selective Glycerol Electro-Oxidation
  Soressa Abera Chala, Ekemena O. Oseghe, Keseven Lakshmanan, Marcel Langer, Katharina Potemkin, Paul Heim, Rongji Liu, Tobias Rios Studer, Meng-Che Tsai, Kecheng Cao, Chun-Chi Chang, Chia-Yu Chang, Kevin Sowa, Elnaz Ebrahimi, Sarra Rahali, Simon T. Clausing, Sina Sadigh Akbari, Joachim Bans
  Advanced Energy Materials 2026
  https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202504456