https://www.adelaide.edu.au/newsroom/news/list/2023/01/30/seawater-split-to-produce-green-hydrogen Skip to main content x [ ] Search University of Adelaide home page University of Adelaide home page Menu x Newsroom Site Menu * Home * News * Events + Events Calendar + Submit Your Event * Find an Expert * Media Contacts * Writing for The Conversation Site menu x Login * Home * newsroom * News * 2023 * 01 * 30 * Current: Seawater split to produce green hydrogen Seawater split to produce green hydrogen Posted on Feb 1 2023 by Jessica Stanley Waves in the ocean Researchers have successfully split seawater without pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen. The international team was led by the University of Adelaide's Professor Shizhang Qiao and Associate Professor Yao Zheng from the School of Chemical Engineering. "We have split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with nearly 100 per cent efficiency, to produce green hydrogen by electrolysis, using a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial electrolyser," said Professor Qiao. A typical non-precious catalyst is cobalt oxide with chromium oxide on its surface. "We used seawater as a feedstock without the need for any pre-treatment processes like reverse osmosis desolation, purification, or alkalisation," said Associate Professor Zheng. "The performance of a commercial electrolyser with our catalysts running in seawater is close to the performance of platinum/iridium catalysts running in a feedstock of highly purified deionised water. Our work provides a solution to directly utilise seawater without pre-treatment systems and alkali addition, which shows similar performance as that of existing metal-based mature pure water electrolyser.The University of Adelaide's Associate Professor Yao Zheng, researcher in the School of Chemical Engineering. The team published their research in the journal Nature Energy. "Current electrolysers are operated with highly purified water electrolyte. Increased demand for hydrogen to partially or totally replace energy generated by fossil fuels will significantly increase scarcity of increasingly limited freshwater resources," said Associate Professor Zheng. Seawater is an almost infinite resource and is considered a natural feedstock electrolyte. This is more practical for regions with long coastlines and abundant sunlight. However, it isn't practical for regions where seawater is scarce. Seawater electrolysis is still in early development compared with pure water electrolysis because of electrode side reactions, and corrosion arising from the complexities of using seawater. "It is always necessary to treat impure water to a level of water purity for conventional electrolysers including desalination and deionisation, which increases the operation and maintenance cost of the processes," said Associate Professor Zheng. "Our work provides a solution to directly utilise seawater without pre-treatment systems and alkali addition, which shows similar performance as that of existing metal-based mature pure water electrolyser." The team will work on scaling up the system by using a larger electrolyser so that it can be used in commercial processes such as hydrogen generation for fuel cells and ammonia synthesis. Media contacts Associate Professor Yao Zheng, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide. Phone: +61 (0)8 8313 5981, Email: yao.zheng01@adelaide.edu.au Professor Shizhang Qiao, Chair of Nanotechnology, Director, Centre for Materials in Energy and Catalysis, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide. Phone: +61 (0)8 8313 6443, Email: s.qiao@adelaide.edu.au Crispin Savage, Manager, Media and News, The University of Adelaide. Mobile: +61 (0)481 912 465. Email: crispin.savage@adelaide.edu.au Tagged in science, research, energy, hydrogen, environment, catalyst, water, chemical engineering, featured story * Previous page * Next page Media Office External Engagement Phone: +61 8 8313 0814 media@adelaide.edu.au Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn Snapchat Event contacts Media contacts Find an expert Media guidelines Staff News lumen * Authorised by: Deputy Director, Media and Corporate Relations * Maintained by: Media and Corporate Relations * Last updated: 1 Feb 2023 top