The United States and South Korea have developed an efficient catalyst for the manufacture of green hydrogen

One of the ways to make green hydrogen is to electrolyze water, which is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen with the help of a catalyst, but currently this process requires expensive metal elements. According to the website of the American "Daily Science" magazine recently reported, American and South Korean scientists have jointly developed a new water decomposition process and catalyst material that can maximize the production efficiency of green hydrogen, and is inexpensive and easy to obtain.

Hydrogen is critical to achieving net zero emissions in the world's industrial sector. The U.S. government proposed a "hydrogen bomb" plan last year, hoping to reduce the cost of green hydrogen by 80 percent within a decade. The U.S. Department of Energy-led plan aims to reduce the cost of green hydrogen to $1 per kilogram by 2030. Achieving those goals will help the U.S. address the climate crisis and more quickly meet the government's goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, while creating high-paying jobs and developing the economy, the U.S. Department of Energy said.

Currently, the main way scientists obtain green hydrogen is by using electricity to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen, but the process relies on precious metals such as platinum and iridium, which are expensive and rare, hindering the process of replacing natural gas with hydrogen energy. In 2020, green hydrogen accounted for less than 1% of annual hydrogen production, largely due to the high cost of catalysts in the process of electrolyzing water.

Lead researcher of the latest study, Li Shengyou, associate professor of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, said: "We have designed a new catalyst that uses fewer precious metal elements on its oxide substrate and has excellent electrolyzed water performance. ”

In the latest study, the Korea Energy Research Institute modeled the new catalyst, and Gyeongpo National University in South Korea and Oregon State University in the United States conducted X-ray measurements of the new catalyst. Li Explains: "Using X-rays, we can monitor the structural changes of catalysts during hydrodesis at the nanoscale, and thus study their oxidation state or atomic structure under operating conditions. ”

Another leader of the latest research, Park Jin-ho of the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that in addition to developing this new hybrid catalyst, researchers can better control the shape of the catalyst and the interaction between metals, which can reduce the use of catalysts in the system and improve its durability, thereby reducing the cost of making green hydrogen. (Reporter Liu Xia)

Source: Science and Technology Daily