This worked well in the laboratory, but ruthenium is too expensive for mass deployment.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

To start with, Dr Moore had to nurse this process along by adding a second extra component a catalyst based on ruthenium.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

The new approach described by Matthias Beller, from the University of Rostock, and colleagues uses a ruthenium-based catalyst, which can efficiently generate hydrogen from methanol at 65-95C and at ambient pressure.

BBC: Hydrogen's energy promise improves

However, when he was playing with solvents that might be added to the system to speed the transfer of the dicyclopentadiene to the cracks it is intended to heal, he found a solvent that encouraged the process to work without the ruthenium catalyst.

ECONOMIST: Monitor