Researchers from the University of Sydney have created a process to produce green hydrogen from freshwater and seawater using liquid metals and sunlight.
New research from Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh, from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and his team have developed a circular process that uses gallium, a metal with a low melting point, suspended in either seawater or freshwater and activated under sunlight or artificial light. The gallium reacts with the water to become gallium oxyhydroxide and releases hydrogen.
The team produced hydrogen with a maximum efficiency of 12.9 per cent.
“We now have a way of extracting sustainable hydrogen, using seawater, which is easily accessible while relying solely on light for green hydrogen production,” said lead author and PhD candidate Luis Campos.
The method offers a new avenue for producing green hydrogen as a sustainable energy source. Researchers and scientists have long investigated methods to find the most economical way to produce green hydrogen, which is made using renewable sources, in order to power the energy, transport, and manufacturing and agriculture industries.
“Hydrogen offers a clean energy solution for a sustainable future and could play a pivotal role in Australia’s international advantage in a hydrogen economy,” says project co-lead Dr. Francois Allioux.
Many industries and scientists believe hydrogen is the ideal candidate for a sustainable energy source as it is abundant and can be sourced from a large range of compounds. When hydrogen burns, it produces no pollutants, only water, but still generates high levels of energy or power.
Professor Kalantar-Zadeh said: “There is a global need to commercialise a highly efficient method for producing green hydrogen. Our process is efficient and easy to scale up.”
The team are now working on increasing the efficiency of the technology and their next goal is to establish a mid-scale reactor to extract hydrogen.
