Making hydrogen from seawater

Green hydrogen—produced through renewable resources such as solar and wind—holds significant promise in meeting the world’s future energy demands while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However present methods of water splitting are energy expensive and involve multiple steps to ensure the safety of the process.

The usual methods of producing hydrogen involve splitting freshwater. Because less than 3% of the world’s water supply is fresh, this requires the purification of water before splitting can take place. If seawater could be used instead of freshwater, 97% of the world’s water supply could be used as a resource for hydrogen production. 

Current technologies for hydrogen production using seawater require the use of expensive membranes to separate the dissolved ions from seawater and produce pure water, even before splitting can take place.

Using dedicated research laboratories established by Vecor Technologies for research and product development in this field, Professor Sorrell, Dr. Yue Jiang, Associate Professor Pramod Koshy and Dr. Sajjad Mofarah have developed novel catalytic materials which enable seawater splitting over long timeframes whiles maintaining efficiency. 

Dr Jiang said that one of the major disincentives for research into seawater splitting is the potential for the formation of chlorine gas as a by-product. 

“This gas is highly toxic and corrosive, but we have been able to design our process to enable seawater splitting without chlorine being generated.”

Associate Professor Koshy agreed, adding that another problem facing water splitting research is oxygen generation.

“Oxygen forms an explosive mixture with hydrogen and must be separated from hydrogen before the fuel can be used,“ he explained. “We have been able to engineer our catalysts so that oxygen generation is avoided altogether, providing a safer means of production.”

Having successfully commercialised ceramic products from waste materials in collaboration with researchers from UNSW School of Materials Science and Engineering, Vecor is now exploring advanced materials research and systems for hydrogen generation.

“With the demand for hydrogen as a clean-burning energy resource growing exponentially, developing a competitive technical solution to seawater splitting will benefit the environment while creating jobs and investment opportunities for Australian and international energy providers,” said CEO Mark Ramsey, whose expansion into the clean and renewable energy sector is supported by the Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy.

“Given Australia’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2050 and the IRENA World Energy Transitions Outlook 2022 estimating that, of total energy consumption, hydrogen will account for 12%, we are confident that there would be strong market for green hydrogen production,” said Professor Charles C. Sorrell.

Vecor’s goal is to develop the materials and processes required to facilitate both localised and demountable systems to split seawater into hydrogen using only clean and renewable approaches. 

This will enable the company to carve out a significant participation in key industrial sectors including:

• Electricity generation
• Transportation
• Industrial chemical fabrication
• Food production

“Vecor’s research commercialisation work with UNSW is focused on delivering practical, real-world solutions to the environmental, energy and economic challenges of the 21^st century,” said Mr. Ramsey, who is also working with the University to find alternatives to expensive and strategically-sensitive lithium, used widely in rechargeable batteries. Vecor is also using technology originally developed at UNSW to convert fly ash, a waste by-product of coal-fired electricity generation, into advanced products for a range of targeted industries.