Spanish Researchers Claim a Green Hydrogen Breakthrough

[Elderberry]

Watts Up With That? by Eric Worrall 11/4/2020

Researchers in Spain claim their breakthrough cuts the cost of electrolysis cells, by replacing the traditional arrangement of layered electrode plates with a much simpler electrochemical system.

    H2? Oh! New water-splitting technique pushes progress of green hydrogen

    It’s really dope. Yep it’s an energy-efficient process kicked off by gadolinium-doped cerium dioxide

    Lindsay Clark Tue 3 Nov 2020

    Researchers in Spain have uncovered a new approach to producing hydrogen via water splitting which could help overcome some of the drawbacks to this promising alternative fuel source.

    In a study published in Nature Energy, Valencia University researcher José Manuel Serra, professor José M Catalá-Civera, and their colleagues describe a method for producing hydrogen gas by blasting microwave radiation at a watery chemical soup. The approach could make extracting hydrogen from water cheaper, and more importantly, reduce the capital costs of the necessary machinery.    …

    The cyclical process proposed by the research team uses a soup of gadolinium-doped cerium oxide and water. Applying microwaves to the mixture electrochemically deoxygenates the cerium oxide, but when the microwaves stop, there’s a reaction with the water, and the cerium re-oxygenates and produces free hydrogen.

More: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/04/spanish-researchers-claim-green-hydrogen-breakthrough/

[Joe Wooten]

Despite the potential cost saving of this new catalyst, the green hydrogen produced by this generator is still very expensive, because of the cost of the renewable energy which is required to fuel the process.

The last sentence of the referenced article. It plainly states that the cost of producing the hydrogen is still too expensive and what was left unstated is that it still takes more energy to make the hydrogen nthan you get out of it, therefore it is still a net loser and will not be practical.