NUS lightbulb-inspired reactor boosts hydrogen production, plastic recycling, and methane conversion for decarbonisation

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a chemical reactor inspired by an incandescent lightbulb that uses electricity to heat a thin metal filament to over 1,200 degrees Celsius. This design concentrates heat on a small area, making the process more efficient than traditional methods that burn fuel to heat entire reactors. The reactor can run on renewable electricity, which cuts carbon emissions from industrial chemical reactions. The team demonstrated the reactor in three key applications: producing hydrogen from ammonia, recycling plastic waste into reusable building blocks, and converting methane into valuable chemicals. In the ammonia test, the reactor achieved near-complete conversion to hydrogen in a much smaller system than conventional setups. The researchers are now working with an industry partner to scale the technology for ammonia-based energy systems. The work was published in Nature Chemical Engineering, Nature Communications, and Nature Sustainability between 2025 and 2026. While the results are promising, the technology remains at the lab scale. Key questions include how the filament holds up over thousands of hours and whether the economics work at industrial volumes. If these hurdles are cleared, the reactor could offer a practical path to electrify parts of the chemical industry that currently rely on fossil fuels.