Scientists successfully isolated 'green' hydrogen from sea water without the use of precious metal catalysts

After initial successes, an international team of scientists will work to expand the production of hydrogen from seawater through the use of a larger electrolyzer. If all goes well, the next plans for engineers are to use in commercial processes the production of hydrogen for fuel cells and in the synthesis of ammonia.

Professor Shizhang Qiao of the University of Adelaide and Associate Professor Yao Zheng of the School of Chemical Engineering led an international team that successfully split seawater without pretreatment to produce "green" hydrogen.

Professor Qiao:

We split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with almost 100 percent efficiency to produce green hydrogen by electrolysis using a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial apparatus.

In an interview with the press, fellow Associate Professor Zheng explained that they used seawater as a feedstock without the need for any pre-treatment processes such as reverse osmosis desalination, purification or alkalization. The performance of a commercial electrolyser with seawater catalysts is close to that of platinum-iridium catalysts operating on a highly purified deionized water feedstock.

Professor Zheng added:

Modern electrolyzers operate on a highly purified aqueous electrolyte. The growing demand for hydrogen to replace some or all of the energy generated by fossil fuels will greatly increase the scarcity of increasingly limited fresh water resources.

Sea water is an almost endless resource and is considered a natural electrolyte. This is more practical for regions with long coastlines and abundant sunshine. However, this is not practical for regions where sea water is scarce.

Seawater electrolysis is still at an early stage of development compared to pure water electrolysis due to side reactions of the electrodes and corrosion arising from the difficulties of using high salinity water.

The scientists' development offers a solution for the direct use of sea water without pre-treatment systems and alkali addition, which demonstrates a performance similar to that of the existing metal-based pure water electrolyzer.

The prospect of a significant reduction in the cost of the water source plus the elimination of the use of precious metals holds great expectations, as the scientists themselves put it.

Comments

[voice of reason]

World transnational energy corporations and national governments will not allow humanity to receive cheap energy on a non-commercial basis. This was already clear with the development of the industrial power industry in general. Energy freedom is not beneficial to any government. Payment for the use of energy and the "energy component" in the price of goods and services is a way of financial enslavement of people. Therefore, there will be no free and cheap energy NEVER.

[NDR-791]

Quote: voice of reason

The world's energy corporations and governments will not allow humanity to get cheap energy on a non-commercial basis.

How cheap is she? That's what dear. Not only will there be a shortage of fresh water, but also electricity. Yes, and Professor Qiao let it slip:

We split natural sea water into oxygen and hydrogen with almost 100 percent efficiency

That is, as I understand it, the costs of decomposition slightly exceeded the benefits of obtaining this "greenery". Another rake from the category of "green" energy

[astepanov]

A little theory. For the production of 1 kg of hydrogen, 720 MJ of energy is required, the same amount of energy will be obtained in the form of heat when hydrogen is burned. It is impossible to spend less than 720 MJ / kg - this would mean the possibility of creating a perpetual motion machine. But more can be spent, while the excess goes to heat during electrolysis. Catalysts are used to reduce losses. Usually they also reduce the corrosion of the electrodes. This is what is written in the article, only very vaguely. There is no question of any cheap energy: instead of electricity being driven through wires, it will be driven through pipes in the form of hydrogen. Getting electricity from hydrogen at the end consumer is justified only in a small number of cases, for example, on electric vehicles in fuel cells. While such electric vehicles are expensive and unreliable. It is possible to use hydrogen directly, for example, in the production of ammonia, but hydrogen obtained from water and natural gas or from water and coal is several times cheaper. That's all that the authors of the original article, indistinctly stated by Mikhail Khamin, wanted to say.

[KCA]

The Dyson sphere will save us, it will provide free energy for everything, in a thousand years we will build and live on a completely "green" Earth, setting the pepelats in motion with free hydrogen, are 99% of the Earth's population down and believe in green energy? Although what I’m talking about, 99% in general either don’t know what the fuss is about, or they’re completely screwed

[Boycott]

If we also take into account the efficiency of the installation and energy transmission systems, the costs of hydrogen transmission, then we are in the absolute minus.

[Bingo]

Quote: NDR-791

That is, as I understand it, the costs of decomposition slightly exceeded the benefits of obtaining this "greenery". Another rake from the category of "green" energy

Here is another reverse, I myself have been driving these "green power engineers" for 30 years. Here the meaning is in the deposition of energy, just reducing its main drawback - the so-called. "energy saw", the graph of the power taken from the solar power plant or wind farm resembles a saw - when it's thick, when it's empty. Here at the peak - turn on the electrolyzer and fill the tanks with hydrogen, when there is no generation - burn hydrogen. It is still VERY rough, there are still seas of pitfalls, hydrogen, for example, cannot be stored in steel tanks and steel pipes, it itself has the properties of a metal, therefore it seeps out, forming something in the form of an alloy, besides destroying steel ... But the application is serious, if, of course, they did it - so far no one has confirmed, it's just chatter, like a cure for cancer, every year for 100 years at least twice invented with publications in serious medical journals, but only the statue promised for this from gold and not in demand

[astepanov]

Quote from Bingo

hydrogen, for example, cannot be stored in steel tanks and steel pipes

In any laboratory there are steel cylinders with hydrogen, and in enterprises hydrogen is driven through steel pipes. Synthesis of ammonia is carried out in steel columns. Have you ever worked with hydrogen yourself? Looks like no.

[Bingo]

Quote: astepanov

In any laboratory there are steel cylinders with hydrogen

I heard a ringing, but I don’t know where it is ... There is also steel on the BBM, and surgical steel is also steel, but these are completely different steels. There is even steel that is completely inert to constant exposure to concentrated nitrogen ... It stands like a stone bridge to make pipes from it or industrial storage facilities - such a small nuance that removes hydrogen in steel only in laboratories
I worked with hydrogen, worked.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: voice of reason

World transnational energy corporations and national governments will not allow humanity to receive cheap energy on a non-commercial basis.

"He who finds an alternative to fuel from oil will not live 24 hours" - this was said in the 30s, or maybe earlier.

[Al manah]

Even beaten in the movie "The Game of Four Hands".

[Fabrizio]

Obvious stupidity was said, if someone finds it, they will not only live, but investors with money will instantly catch up and the same oil companies will invest, what difference does it make for a capitalist to earn money, so he pumped oil has billions in his accounts, here are his advisers they say that a real alternative to oil has been found and instead of billions, you can earn trillions if you are the first and this oil tycoon will be the first to invest and develop this newest thing.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: voice of reason

Therefore, there will be no free and cheap energy NEVER.

I think so too, but naive people think differently.
The time of cheapness has passed, it's time to get used to living within your means, and not for free. The USSR and Russia corrupted the West.

[Fabrizio]

World transnational energy corporations and national governments will not allow humanity to receive cheap energy on a non-commercial basis.

Under capitalism, this is impossible, just a new transnational energy corporation will appear, which will sell energy, relatively speaking, at half the price and either completely conquer the market, or other players will switch to new technologies.

But in reality, what does not allow humanity to receive cheap energy on a non-commercial basis is the heartless laws of physics.

[Asad]

Where is this international team located? Who pays for these technologies? I hope not USA.

[APASUS]

I always liked this activity, to step somewhere there, beyond the limits of consciousness. Do you know how many cities on the planet utilize all their wastewater by 100%?

[engineer74]

A hundred years later: "And we processed all the water into Lutz!" © Kin-dza-dza (not sure of exact quote)

[Galleon]

Good good joke
And spit that short comment

[Vladimir80]

Oh, these optimistic science news, 2 months ago we read the news from the United States "December 5, 2022, a thermonuclear fusion reaction was obtained at the Livermore National Laboratory named after E. Lawrence (LLNL). It is stated that more energy was received at the output of the reaction than was spent on starting the reaction itself" and where is the continuation ???

[evgen1221]

First, we will distill all the water into the beam, and then we will think about how to turn it back into water.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: evgen1221

First, we will distill all the water into the beam, and then we will think about how to turn it back into water.

Precisely, if capitalism starts making hydrogen from sea water, then in 100 years, all oceans will become deserts.

[astepanov]

Quote: tihonmarine

if capitalism starts making hydrogen from sea water, then in 100 years, all oceans will become deserts.

They won't, because when burning hydrogen, it will work - you won't believe it! - all the same water.

[Leader_Barmaleev]

Again, the same mega-crap that was already with electric vehicles is repeated. As in the case of electric vehicles, the question was - where to get electricity to charge SUCH a number of batteries, and with hydrogen produced by electrolysis, the same question arises - where to get so much electricity for this electrolysis to take place at all? Well, and related questions: where to put excess chlorine?, where and in what to store hydrogen before use?, how to come to terms with the fact that, taking into account energy losses and just hellish logistics with storage and transportation, this energy will be golden? In general, no matter what the tadpoles amuse themselves with, as long as they don’t bring it to life. For it is fraught.

[tralflot1832]

What interesting Australian surnames do scientists have, did they transport all their relatives to Australia?

[tihonmarine]

Quote: tralflot1832

What interesting Australian surnames do scientists have, did they transport all their relatives to Australia?

There are 1 Chinese of Australia's 177 million people, and they are all highly educated, but not farmers.

[tralflot1832]

I will reveal a terrible secret, an international project. From the PRC - Nanjing University.

[Vladimir Postnikov]

If all goes well, the next plans for engineers are to use in commercial processes the production of hydrogen for fuel cells and in the synthesis of ammonia.

What's this? Is electrolysis going to be used "in the synthesis of ammonia"? If electrolysis is not directly related to the synthesis of ammonia, then the phrase is a sample of illiteracy. If it does, then the author should have at least hinted at how.

[astepanov]

Quote: Vladimir Postnikov

Is electrolysis going to be used "in the synthesis of ammonia"? If electrolysis is not directly related to the synthesis of ammonia, then the phrase is a sample of illiteracy.

Didn't you teach in school that ammonia consists of three parts of hydrogen and one part of nitrogen, and that it is obtained by direct synthesis from these elements (under pressure and in the presence of a catalyst)? And you accuse someone else of illiteracy ...

[Leader_Barmaleev]

Didn't you learn in school that...

Didn't you teach at school that the Haber process to which you refer takes place at a temperature of 480 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 3500 atmospheres and requires a mixture of pure hydrogen and pure nitrogen without the slightest admixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide? There are much simpler and more technological methods for obtaining ammonia from nitrogen-containing minerals on inexpensive catalysts. And you think that the remark was made to you incorrectly?

[Vladimir Postnikov]

Quote: astepanov

Didn't you teach in school that ammonia consists of three parts of hydrogen and one part of nitrogen, and that it is obtained by direct synthesis from these elements (under pressure and in the presence of a catalyst)? And you accuse someone else of illiteracy ...

I personally accuse you of illiteracy. I will repeat personally for you, if you don’t understand: Is it that ammonia is synthesized by electrolysis? If you have not been taught the logic of the language, then you, like the author, are difficult for a literate person to understand.

[Bingo]

A rare case when something sensible was done in the USA, but for this very reason it may not take off - there is less to cut on a cheap one. Although, on the other hand, the catalyst itself is relatively inexpensive, and is not consumed in the reaction, so the savings are so-so. Here they save more on the fact that you can split just filtered sea water

[nellyjuri]

Meaning? It is much easier and cheaper to use natural gas for the production of ammonia and hydrogen than to turn on electrolyzers.
Because in addition to hydrogen, which gives methane, there is also carbon black, without which the tire and rubber industry will stand still. Firstly, carbon is ideal as a filler for a mixture of rubber and filler - all attempts to use clay or plastic reduce the life of the wheel rubber at times. And secondly, synthetic fillers, which they have been trying to do for many years, all the same, even with mass production, that is, the lowest cost, will lead to an increase in the cost of the tires themselves by at least half. It's one thing, waste in the production of hydrogen, another thing is a whole chemical enterprise for the production of this filler itself.

[Archimedos]

Are you stunned, Vladimir Nikolaevich, my dear? - Where did the sea come from on Pluka? They made a luz out of them a long time ago. "Sorry, what did you do?" “Fuel, Fiddler, fuel!”

[VladimirNET]

Quote: astepanov

For the production of 1 kg of hydrogen, 720 MJ of energy is required, the same amount of energy will be obtained in the form of heat when hydrogen is burned.

The choice is small - either collect the same energy into batteries (for cars), or into hydrogen.
As I understand it, if nuclear power plants are turned on "FULL", then it is logical to use excess energy for hydrogen (there are no such batteries yet).

Why instead they are idle is not entirely clear ...

[acetophenone]

Yeah... As everyone knows, buns grow on trees, and electricity flows from a socket.

[iljael]

To produce 1 liter of hydrogen, 10 liters of hydrogen must be burned to produce electricity to decompose water. "Beneficial" only as an additional accumulation of unused energy.

[art266]

As Saakashvilli blurted out about "green hydrogen", it stuck.
Why is hydrogen "green" and not some "blue" one?

[smart fellow]

The color gradation of hydrogen depends on the method of its production and the carbon footprint, that is, the amount of harmful emissions:

"green" - produced using energy from renewable sources by water electrolysis, is considered the cleanest;
"blue" - produced from natural gas; in this case, carbon dioxide accumulates in special storage facilities;
"yellow" - produced using atomic energy.
in the production of "gray" hydrogen, harmful emissions go into the atmosphere.

[smart fellow]

Hydrogen is not produced for combustion at thermal power plants, as most commentators have decided. Hydrogen is used in a variety of industrial processes ranging from synthetic fuels and petrochemicals to semiconductors and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. At the same time, the cost of producing 1 kg of "green" hydrogen obtained by electrolysis is about $10, from natural gas $1,5-3.

After initial successes, an international team of scientists will work to expand the production of hydrogen from seawater through the use of a larger electrolyzer.

In China, they learned how to extract hydrogen from sea water without desalination plants and pumps - it can't be cheaper
Scientists from Nanjing Technical University in China ...
Researchers have proven the operation of the innovative installation in practice. A demonstrator of 11 electrolysis cells was lowered into the waters of Shenzhen Bay, where it worked non-stop for 130 days. Every hour the plant produced 386 liters of hydrogen. Electricity was spent only on pumping fresh sea water and on the electrolysis process itself.
17.12.2022/3/1079038 https://1081406dnews.ru/XNUMX/v-kitae-nauchilis-dobivat-vodorod-iz-morskoy-vodi-bez-opresniteley-i-nasosov-deshevle-ne-bivaet?from=related-grid&from-source =XNUMX

[Knell wardenheart]

If we talk about the cost of production - the most deshman is the thermal decomposition of water in solar concentrator installations. The water flowing through the pipeline is used to cool the mirrors (than its temperature further increases), after which it is sent to the solar concentrator, where it is decomposed into oxygen and hydrogen by the stupid energy of the sun.
% of excess or stray heat within such a cycle can be used for low pressure steam generation that will provide the plant with energy to pump water. Sufficiently effective separation of oxygen and hydrogen can be provided in an underground gravity column (simultaneously combining the first cooling circuit from the water entering the system).
Of course, hydrogen will need additional purification - but such a system almost does not require third-party generation (mostly for cooling and compression), and its own is minimally involved (positioning mirrors, pumping water).
With sea water, work hemorrhoids on materials - from salts and their high corrosiveness cannot be avoided.

[Knell wardenheart]

All these areas of "green hydrogen" are cheating and madness. The thing is stupid in chemistry and physics - no matter how sophisticated you are, it will ALWAYS take more energy to decompose water (due to efficiency <100%) than to burn hydrogen in an air / oxygen atmosphere or fuel cell operation. Since energy is often spent inside the process of water decomposition (electrolysis) with an efficiency <100%, then these are already losses, but losses are also spent on energy transportation, and losses (for heat) and the maximum efficiency of EE generation are spent on energy generation at TPPs or NPPs there will be 40%. Also, hydrogen will need to be significantly compressed (more losses) and simultaneously cooled (and more losses). And hydrogen itself, unlike oil or natural gas, is very worthless for remote transportation through pipelines (due to its high ability to diffuse and extreme fire and explosion hazard with all this). That is, there will also be losses for the transportation of hydrogen in a ballooned form, and very significant ones.

If, however, it is produced from sea (or other) water using solar panels, the efficiency of solar cells (not lab. But industrial designs, and average and not "starting") does not exceed 22% (in almost ideal conditions). And with the SBs themselves in the coastal zone (closer to production in order to avoid losses), not the best things will happen due to the deposition of salts and their inevitable impact on structures and performance. Yes, and the solar cells themselves provide non-ideal seasonal generation, not to mention the occupied areas (in the coastal zone, I remind you).

That is, the idea smacks of "bullshit" - because it will take MUCH more energy to produce hydrogen (and make it usable) than it will bring to the consumer. Convenience in its transportation is also abstract (especially in storage) - you can pour a benzak through a tube from tank to tank or refuel "easy". And hydrogen is hydrogen, in liquid form this baby requires cryogenic temperatures, and during storage it can require (with more or less long).

But back to the very idea - "hydrogen from sea water". Can ? Can. Question - what for?

[Sasha Koblov]

To get the result without the use of expensive catalysts
You can try ways of irradiating water (or steam) during electrolysis.