Chemical Market Applications
Formate and its simple derivatives are used in a very wide variety of applications including:
- Animal Feed and Silage Preservative
- Rubber and Tire Production
- Leather and Textile Dyeing and Finishing
- Cleaning, Scouring, and Disinfectant Products
- Drilling and Completion Fluids
- Fertilizers and Fumigants for Agriculture
- Corrosion-free De-icing
- Meat and Fish Processing
- Pharmaceuticals
- Wastewater Treatment
- Hydrogen Donation for Biomass Reduction
- A safe liquid carrier for carbon monoxide
- End-Product and Intermediate Chemicals (e.g. Alkyl and Alkali Formates, Carboxylic Acids, Alcohols, Glycols)
Its wide usage reflects its unique versatility as the smallest, most energy and gravimetrically dense, donor of hydrogen.
A Liquid Hydrogen Carrier
In addition to its use as a platform chemical, hydrogen formate is also a vector to store clean energy in a stable energy-dense liquid hydrogen carrier form. Clean molecular, or di-atomic, hydrogen gas is made renewably from water and green electricity but is very costly to store, move and dispense due to its low volumetric density and highly flammable nature. Making and moving clean hydrogen atoms, instead, in a stable, non-flammable liquid and chemically bonded form like hydrogen formate can reduce green hydrogen distribution costs by 90%.