Australia (Commonwealth Union) – The urgent need for alternative energy has become the need of the hour as a result of high inflation brought about by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, high debt by global governments and the ongoing Russia – Ukraine war. Many countries have had difficulty making a complete transformation to alternative energy and have been exploring alternatives such as nuclear power. Scientists in Melbourne have applied sound waves that can enhance production of green hydrogen by 14 times, via electrolysis to divide water molecules.
The engineers state that the invention can pave the way for a promising way of making use of an abundant supply of economical hydrogen fuel for transport sectors, which can rapidly bring down carbon emissions and assist in the battle against climate change. The application of high-frequency vibrations to “divide and conquer” individual water molecules while electrolysis occurs, had the team with the ability to split the water molecules to emit 14 times more hydrogen when contrasted to standard electrolysis techniques.
Electrolysis is the procedure where electricity moving through water with 2 electrodes to divide water molecules into oxygen as well as hydrogen gases, which look like bubbles. The procedure forms green hydrogen, representing a minor fraction of hydrogen formation across the world due to the increased energy needs. A majority of hydrogen is formed from dividing blue hydrogen a natural gas emitting greenhouse gas into the environment.
RMIT University, School of Engineering. Associate Professor Amgad Rezk, who led the study, stated that the team’s innovation tackles large barriers for green hydrogen formation and also indicated that a main obstacle of electrolysis is that electrode materials used are expensive, that include platinum or iridium. “With sound waves making it much easier to extract hydrogen from water, it eliminates the need to use corrosive electrolytes and expensive electrodes such as platinum or iridium. As water is not a corrosive electrolyte, we can use much cheaper electrode materials such as silver.”
Being capable of using economical electrode materials and not using highly corrosive electrolytes are gamechangers for reducing the costs of green hydrogen formation, according to Rezk. The study was published in Advanced Energy Materials and an Australian provisional patent application was also filed for protection of the new technology.
First author Yemima Ehrnst stated that the sound waves also blocked the build-up of hydrogen and oxygen bubbles on the electrodes, significantly enhancing its conductivity and stability. Ehrnst, a PhD researcher at RMIT’s School of Engineering said: “Electrode materials used in electrolysis suffer from hydrogen and oxygen gas build-up, forming a gas layer that minimises the electrodes’ activity and significantly reduces its performance.”
A component of the study had the team monitor the level hydrogen formed via electrolysis with and without sound waves from the electrical output. “The electrical output of the electrolysis with sound waves was about 14 times greater than electrolysis without them, for a given input voltage. This was equivalent to the amount of hydrogen produced,” added Ehrnst.
Initial cost and efficiency are some of the main obstacles for many to make the switch to alternative energy, however with increased usage the cost is likely to come down and many researchers across the world have recently had their key focus on increased efficiency for alternative energy.
Distinguished Professor Leslie Yeo, who is a lead senior researcher, indicated that the breakthrough of the team paved the way for the application of this new acoustic platform for other uses, particularly where bubble build-up on the electrodes was hard.
In spite the innovation being promising, the team will have to overcome obstacles with integrating the sound-wave innovation with present electrolysers to scale up the work. “We are keen to collaborate with industry partners to boost and complement their existing electrolyser technology and integrate into existing processes and systems,” said Yeo.
