- 2852 - HYDROGEN FUEL - can we get it from sea water? - Hydrogen is an ideal fuel if we could harvest it from sea water. There is plenty of sea water easy to get. And, when you burn hydrogen that turns back into water again. A perfect cycle. A breakthrough into splitting water into its parts, hydrogen and oxygen, could make renewable energy pay off, even when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.
-------------------- 2852 - HYDROGEN FUEL - can we get it from sea water
- Hydrogen is an ideal fuel if we could harvest it from sea water. There is plenty of sea water easy to get. And, when you burn hydrogen that turns back into water again. A perfect cycle.
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- A breakthrough into splitting water into its parts, hydrogen and oxygen, could make renewable energy pay off, even when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.
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- When solar and wind power is available we could use it for “water splitting“. Electrolysis is a process that uses electricity to split H2O into hydrogen and oxygen. We could then store the energy in the form of hydrogen fuel.
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- Currently the most popular system used for water splitting, or water electrolysis, relies on precious metals as catalysts. Recent research has developed a system that uses less expensive and more abundant materials as catalysts. This new system uses a nickel-iron based catalyst, which is much cheaper, but the performance is comparable.
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- Most water splitting today is conducted using a piece of equipment called a “proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer“, which generates hydrogen at a high production rate. It is expensive, and works under very acidic conditions, requiring precious metal catalysts such as platinum and iridium as well as corrosion-resistant metal plates made of titanium.
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- The research team worked to solve this problem by splitting water under alkaline, or basic, conditions with an “anion exchange membrane electrolyzer“. This type of electolyzer does not need a catalyst based on precious metals. This catalyst is based on nickel and iron, elements that are less expensive and more abundant in the environment.
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- The electrode binder is a hydroxide conducting polymer that binds catalysts and provides a high pH environment for fast electrochemical reactions. This system has boosted the hydrogen production rate to nearly ten times the rate of previous anion exchange membrane electrolyzers, making it comparable with the more expensive proton exchange membrane electrolyzer.
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- About 10 million metric tons of hydrogen are currently produced in the United States every year, mostly by using natural gas in a process called “natural gas reforming“. Hydrogen produced from a water splitting process that is powered by electricity from renewable energy holds many economic and environmental benefits.
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- The global hydrogen generation market is expected reach $199.1 billion by 2023. Potential markets for hydrogen energy include everything from mass energy conversion and power grid management to fuel cells for cars. There are approximately 600 wind farms in the United States ready for direct connections to water electrolysis systems
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- The power of the sun, wind and sea may soon combine to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel.
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- This new method for "sea water splitting" could make it easier to turn wind and solar energy into a storable and portable fuel. Hydrogen is a great fuel, but you have to make it.
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- The only sustainable way to do that is to use renewable energy and produce it from water. You also need to use water that people do not want to use for other things, and that would be sea water. So, the holy grail of producing hydrogen would be to combine the sea water and the wind and solar energy found in coastal and offshore environments.
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- Despite the abundance of sea water, it is not commonly used for water splitting. Unless the water is desalinated prior to entering the electrolyzer, an expensive extra step, the chloride ions in sea water turn into toxic chlorine gas, which degrades the equipment and seeps into the environment.
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- To prevent this, a new process inserts a thin, semi -permeable membrane that was originally developed for purifying water in the reverse osmosis (RO) treatment process. The RO membrane replaced the ion-exchange membrane commonly used in electrolyzers.
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- The RO process put a really high pressure on the water and push it through the membrane and keep the chloride ions behind.
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- In an electrolyzer, sea water would no longer be pushed through the RO membrane, but contained by it. A membrane is used to help separate the reactions that occur near two submerged electrodes, a positively charged anode and a negatively charged cathode, connected by an external power source.
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- When the power is turned on, water molecules start splitting at the anode, releasing tiny hydrogen ions called protons and creating oxygen gas. The protons then pass through the membrane and combine with electrons at the cathode to form hydrogen gas.
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- With the RO membrane inserted, seawater is kept on the cathode side, and the chloride ions are too big to pass through the membrane and reach the anode, averting the production of chlorine gas.
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- In water splitting other salts are intentionally dissolved in the water to help make it conductive. The ion-exchange membrane, which filters ions by electrical charge, allows salt ions to pass through. The RO membrane does not.
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- Sea water can be converted into hydrogen fuel using this design for a sea water electrolyzer RO membranes inhibit salt motion, but the only way you generate current in a circuit is because charged ions in the water move between two electrodes.
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- Recently, the researchers received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue investigating sea water electrolysis.
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- The world is looking for renewable hydrogen. Saudi Arabia has planned to build a $5 billion hydrogen facility that is going to use sea water. Right now, they have to desalinate their sea water for agriculture and drinking water.
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- October 4, 2020 2852
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