Novel Catalysts for Dibenzyltoluene as a Potential Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier Use—A Mini-review

The utilization of pure and valuable energy carriers such as hydrogen is becoming important in various applications, especially in the automotive fuel cell industry. However, as a result of the properties and character of hydrogen, its storage is not easy. Therefore, there is a need for systems such as liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs), which fulfill safety standards and are a flexible medium for the storage and transmission of sustainable energy. The heat transfer oil dibenzyltoluene is a novel LOHC system which can offer superior hydrogen storage capacity. Dibenzyltoluene has a good thermal stability and excellent physicochemical properties for LOHC applications in industry (Do, G. et al. Hydrogenation of the liquid organic hydrogen carrier compound dibenzyltoluene – reaction pathway determination by 1H NMR spectroscopy. React. Chem. Eng. 2016, 1, 313−320). In this Review, the experimental study of dibenzyltoluene with the use of catalysts and the theoretical study of dibenzyltoluene through computational modeling and simulations are explored and discussed. The focus is on heterogeneous catalysts which can be used in hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of dibenzyltoluene.