A highly efficient green hydrogen production technology

Green hydrogen has become an important factor in the energy revolution because to its ability to decarbonize several industries, including transportation, electricity generation, and carbon-intensive industries including the manufacturing of steel, cement, glass, and fertilizer. Unfortunately, most hydrogen production still depends on fossil fuels, and although environmentally friendly alternatives are developing, they are not progressing quickly enough to address our climatic problems. The technology here presented, reported in Fig. 1, offers an interesting substitute to the conventional electrolysis process for the green hydrogen production. The method, here described, maintains a separation between anode and cathode reactions by using bipolar (BPM) or anionic exchange (AEM) membranes, redox mediators, 3-D electrodes and nano-engineered heterogeneous catalysts. This improves cell performance and safety during electrolysis. In general, electrolysis is more widely accepted and safe when the gas evolution is isolated from the system itself. This allows for the synthesis of hydrogen outside the building. This technology bypasses the slow electrochemical water splitting process by concentrating on the kinetically preferable water-dissociation step and redox mediator reactions. This leads to a lower overpotential and the use of inexpensive materials (CRM). These developments open the door to nearly 100% catalyst use and the removal of the conventional hot-pressed membrane-electrode assembly, which simplifies manufacturing processes. Interestingly, the approach also makes it possible to produce green hydrogen from saltwater rather than ultra-pure water.