Membrane-Free Water Electrolysis for Hydrogen Generation with Low Cost.

Autor: Gao X; School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia., Wang P; School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia., Sun X; School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia., Jaroniec M; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry & Advanced Materials, Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, United States of America., Zheng Y; School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia., Qiao SZ; School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) [Angew Chem Int Ed Engl] 2024 Oct 30, pp. e202417987. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 30.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202417987
Abstrakt: Conventional water electrolysis relies on expensive membrane-electrode assemblies and sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode, which makes the cost of green hydrogen (H 2 ) generation much higher than that of grey H 2 . Here, we develop an innovative and efficient membrane-free water electrolysis system to overcome these two obstacles simultaneously. This system utilizes the thermodynamically more favorable urea oxidation reaction (UOR) to generate clean N 2 over a new class of Cu-based catalyst (Cu X O) for replacing OER, fundamentally eliminating the explosion risk of H 2 and O 2 mixing while removing the need for membranes. Notably, this membrane-free electrolysis system exhibits the highest H 2 Faradaic efficiency among reported membrane-free electrolysis work. In situ spectroscopic studies reveal that the new N 2 H y intermediate-mediated UOR mechanism on the Cu X O catalyst ensures its unique N 2 selectivity and OER inertness. More importantly, an industrial-type membrane-free water electrolyser (MFE) based on this system successfully reduces electricity consumption to only 3.78 kWh Nm -3 , significantly lower than the 5.17 kWh Nm -3 of commercial alkaline water electrolyzers (AWE). Comprehensive techno-economic analysis (TEA) suggests that the membrane-free design and reduced electricity input of the MFE plants reduce the green H 2 production cost to US$1.81 kg -1 , which is lower than those of grey H 2 while meeting the technical target (US$2.00-2.50 kg -1 ) set by European Commission and United States Department of Energy.
(© 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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