element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • Members
    Members
    • Achievement Levels
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Feedback and Support
    • Members Area
    • Personal Blogs
    • What's New on element14
  • Learn
    Learn
    • eBooks
    • Learning Center
    • Learning Groups
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • Experts & Guidance
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Arduino Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents
    • Project14
    • Project Groups
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Or choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
Power & Energy
  • Technologies
  • More
Power & Energy
Blog New technique uses seawater to produce hydrogen fuel
  • Blog
  • Forum
  • Documents
  • Polls
  • Events
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
Blog Post Actions
  • Subscribe by email
  • More
  • Cancel
  • Share
  • Subscribe by email
  • More
  • Cancel
Group Actions
  • Group RSS
  • More
  • Cancel
Engagement
  • Author Author: Catwell
  • Date Created: 14 Feb 2023 5:26 PM Date Created
  • Views 632 views
  • Likes 9 likes
  • Comments 4 comments
  • hydrogen
  • cabeatwell
  • hydrogen generation
  • power
  • energy
  • summer of green technology
  • innovation
Related
Recommended

New technique uses seawater to produce hydrogen fuel

Catwell
Catwell
14 Feb 2023

image

Researchers have figured out how to produce hydrogen fuel using seawater. (Image Credit: Sarah Brown/Unsplash)

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered a new way to extract seawater and use it to produce hydrogen fuel without pre-treatment. This solution could lead to more affordable green energy production in coastal regions. The team used a cheap and non-precious catalyst in an electrolyzer for this process, splitting seawater into oxygen and hydrogen.

“We have split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with nearly 100 percent efficiency, to produce green hydrogen by electrolysis, using a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial electrolyzer,” said Professor Shizhang Qiao, the team’s co-lead.

The team layered a hard Lewis acid substance atop cobalt oxide catalysts, splitting water molecules. As a result, the device performed similarly to a traditional process involving platinum and iridium catalysts with purified and deionized water. “We used seawater as a feedstock without the need for any pre-treatment processes like reverse osmosis desolation, purification, or alkalisation,” said Associate Professor Yao Zheng. “The performance of a commercial electrolyser with our catalysts running in seawater is close to the performance of platinum/iridium catalysts running in a feedstock of highly purified deionised water.”

Although it sounds exciting, there are still obstacles to commercialization. "Direct seawater electrolysis without the purification process and chemical additives is highly attractive and has been investigated for about 40 years, but the key challenges of this technology remain in both catalyst engineering and device design,” the team wrote in the paper.

According to the researchers, seawater is nearly infinite and serves as a natural feedstock electrolyte. So it’s more suitable for long coastline regions with plenty of sunlight. On the other hand, it’s simply not practical in regions that have scarce seawater.

Compared to pure water electrolysis, seawater electrolysis is still under development due to electrode side reactions and corrosion from using seawater.  “It is always necessary to treat impure water to a level of water purity for conventional electrolyzers including desalination and deionisation, which increases the operation and maintenance cost of the processes. Our work provides a solution to directly utilize seawater without pre-treatment systems and alkali addition, which shows similar performance as that of existing metal-based mature pure water electrolyser,” said Zheng.

The team is exploring ways to upscale their technology by using a larger electrolyzer, allowing it to be used in commercial processes, including hydrogen production for fuel cells and ammonia synthesis.

Have a story tip? Message me at: http://twitter.com/Cabe_Atwell

  • Sign in to reply
  • bidrohini
    bidrohini 9 months ago

    Let's see if we start getting hydrogen fuel from seawater in the near future!

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • dougw
    dougw 9 months ago in reply to robogary

    Traditional electrolysis uses a lot more energy than you can recover, but if the energy is "free" sunlight it changes the equation. Adding this catalyst sounds like it improves the cost benefit ratio. 

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • robogary
    robogary 9 months ago

    I wonder how much electrical power is used in the electrolysis process to make the hydrogen. 

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • dougw
    dougw 9 months ago

    If this ends up also being used on fresh water it could further stress fresh water supply. 

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2023 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube