Israeli and Chinese scientists have developed a method to produce green hydrogen while simultaneously generating valuable chemicals used by industries, a development that could help reduce the cost of green hydrogen production, China Daily reported.
The Israel Institute of Technology said on Tuesday that the research was published in Nature Communications. The team developed a process that replaces the oxygen normally produced during green hydrogen production with an epoxide, a chemical compound widely used in plastics, coatings, adhesives, medicines and other industrial products.
Green hydrogen is produced by using electricity, ideally generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind, to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Under the new process, instead of producing oxygen as the parallel product, the electrochemical system generates an epoxide. This creates an additional valuable product alongside hydrogen and could improve the economics of the process.
According to the researchers, the new method achieved 98% efficiency for both hydrogen production and the parallel chemical reaction. The system also reached a current density considered suitable for large-scale industrial electrolysis.
The researchers said the results demonstrate the potential for combining green hydrogen production with the manufacture of useful industrial chemicals, which could help make renewable hydrogen production more commercially viable.
