The Anonymous Widower

Researchers Use Sea Water To Produce Green Hydrogen At Almost 100% Efficiency

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.

This paragraph gives more details.

“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 electrolyser,” explained Professor Shi-Zhang Qiao, project leader at the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Adelaide.

They use what is called a Lewis acid catalyst.

In the late 1960s, I worked for ICI in Runcorn.

Most of the hydrogen they needed was produced from brine by the large Castner-Kellner process, which may have been green, but was filthy, as it used a lot of mercury.

ICI also had an older and cruder process, which produced hydrogen and oxygen, by electrolysing brine, in a simple cell.

  • These cells had a metal tub, with a concrete lid.
  • Two electrodes passed through the lid.
  • The lids quickly degraded and cells were rebuild regularly.
  • But it did produce medical grade sodium hydroxide.

Legend also had it, that the salt that collected around the lid was pure enough to use in the canteen.

In Torvex Energy, I describe a company in Stockton which is also going the sea water electrolysis route.

Having seen, its Victorian ancestor in operation, I believe that sea water electrolysis has possibilities to make hydrogen efficiently.

 

February 8, 2023 - Posted by | Hydrogen | , , , , , , ,

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