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Scientists have developed a new water-splitting process and material that maximize the efficiency of producing green hydrogen. This makes the process of creating green hydrogen affordable and accessible for industrial partners that want to switch to green hydrogen for renewable energy storage instead of conventional, carbon-emitting hydrogen production from natural gas.
Carbon-free green hydrogen has emerged as one of the newest innovations in helping to bring the world to net-zero emissions.
Hydrogen promises to be a carbon-free clean energy carrier and storage option for renewable energy such as solar and wind.
However, it is hindered by the technological limitations of the time as it currently is costly and too complex to create efficiently.
So far, one method that has been used to create hydrogen is to split water molecules into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
However, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have now developed a new water-splitting process that promises to make the entire process more efficient and hence more affordable for energy providers.
Climate scientists have agreed that hydrogen will become a critical component for the world’s top industrial sectors to achieve their net-zero emission goals.
Scientists hope that green hydrogen will soon replace natural gas and coal, which are currently used today for storing extra electric energy at the grid level.
The fact that green hydrogen has zero emissions makes it a much more environmentally friendly way for storing renewable electricity.
Currently, the process of electrolysis uses expensive noble metal components such as platinum and iridium to split water molecules.
The researchers at Georgia Tech hope to make green hydrogen less costly and more durable by using hybrid materials for the electrocatalyst.
According to market research firm Wood Mackenzie, the high costs of materials meant that green hydrogen accounted for less than 1% of annual hydrogen production in 2020.
Study principal investigator Seung Woo Lee, an expert on electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems said: “Our work will decrease the use of those noble metals, increasing its activity as well as utilization options.”
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This new development comes as great news for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose government has invested heavily in the development of green hydrogen in the UK.
The UK is a leading innovator in green hydrogen and has committed to investing up to £4 billion in hydrogen, including production facilities, up until 2030.
Government analysis suggests that 20-35 percent of the UK’s energy consumption by 2050 could be hydrogen-based.
According to a Government press statement, Green hydrogen “could be critical to meet our targets of net zero emissions by 2050 and cutting emissions by 78 percent by 2035 – a view shared by the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee.”
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