On June 2, 2023, China National Electric Corporation and Academician Xie Heping successfully developed an offshore wind power desalination free seawater electrolysis hydrogen technology in Xinghua, Fujian. This technology was published in the November 2022 issue of the journal Nature and is also one of the top ten scientific advancements in China in 2022!Long ago, humans were troubled by the lack of cheap, clean, and affordable hydrogen production methods

On June 2, 2023, China National Electric Corporation and Academician Xie Heping successfully developed an offshore wind power desalination free seawater electrolysis hydrogen technology in Xinghua, Fujian. This technology was published in the November 2022 issue of the journal Nature and is also one of the top ten scientific advancements in China in 2022!

Long ago, humans were troubled by the lack of cheap, clean, and affordable hydrogen production methods. Can this achievement in China bring about an energy revolution?

Imagine that in the future, our cars won't need to be charged or refueled, just "fully charged" and can achieve a range of more than ten times that of the past;

And our electricity prices will significantly decrease, allowing us to live a life where we don't have to worry about electricity at all, and we can also sell it to foreign countries to earn wealth.

Today, let's talk about what is the strength of this desalination point electrolysis hydrogen technology.

Hydrogen energy production

Since humans entered the Industrial Revolution in 1765, hydrogen, as the first element in the periodic table of chemical elements, has played a huge role in basic chemicals and energy.

Hydrogen, as a clean energy source, unfortunately does not naturally exist and often needs to be converted and extracted through different substances. In the early years, hydrogen was produced through fossil fuel reforming, coal based hydrogen production, industrial by-product hydrogen, and further used for petroleum refining, fine chemical synthesis, automotive fuel, and daily life of residents.

In 2019, hydrogen in China mainly came from fossil fuels (coal to hydrogen, natural gas to hydrogen). The cost of coal to hydrogen production was approximately 12.64 yuan per kilogram of hydrogen, and natural gas to hydrogen production was approximately 12.79 yuan per kilogram.

However, conventional hydrogen extraction is accompanied by a significant amount of energy loss and pollutant emissions, making the cost of extracting hydrogen too high and causing significant environmental pollution.

Nowadays, with the rapid development of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, as well as commercial electrolytic water systems, electrolytic water production of hydrogen has become one of the ideal ways.

Green Energy Seawater Hydrogen Production

Freshwater is scarce in any country, and the most preferred type of water for hydrogen production through electrolysis is seawater. The ocean covers 70% of the Earth's area. If seawater is reasonably utilized to develop its chemical resources, it will undoubtedly alleviate the current energy pressure.

In recent years, the technology of electrolyzing seawater to produce hydrogen has received widespread attention. The hydrogen production method using seawater as raw material mainly forms two different technical routes: indirect hydrogen production from seawater and direct hydrogen production from seawater.

Indirect hydrogen production from seawater

Indirect hydrogen production from seawater

The strong corrosiveness of chloride ions greatly reduces the durability of metal electrodes used in electrolysis. At the same time, calcium ions in seawater form insoluble substances that adhere to the electrode surface during the electrolysis process, making the electrolysis process extremely slow.

However, the cost of desalinating seawater is relatively high, which is much higher than the cost of traditional industrial hydrogen production. At the same time, electrolysis uses almost wind or solar power, which has transportation problems and is only used in specific regions.

Direct hydrogen production from seawater

Direct hydrogen production from seawater

VesrasEngieDirect hydrogen production from seawater

Unfortunately, the plan proposed by the Danish wind group "Vesras" was inefficient and could not obtain commercial value through industrialization, ultimately leading to its bankruptcy.

2022Direct hydrogen production from seawater

Until November 2022, Academician Xie Heping's team published an article titled "A Membrane based Seawater Electrolyser for Hydrogen Generation" in the journal Nature, which was the first time in the world to solve this problem. Even the editors of Nature magazine said:

Direct hydrogen production from seawater

In this technology, a waterproof and breathable membrane is added with a concentrated potassium hydroxide solution. When seawater passes through, impurities and ions in the seawater itself are blocked by the membrane. The seawater that passes through forms "pure water" between the two membranes, and hydrogen can be produced by directly electrolyzing and filtering the seawater.

2022Direct hydrogen production from seawater

One month after the technology was published, Dongfang Electric Co., Ltd. signed an agreement with Academician Xie Heping on the "Pilot Test and Industrialization Promotion Application of Original Seawater Desalination Free Electrolytic Hydrogen Technology". In mid to late May 2023, Dongfang Electric Group took the lead in conducting offshore testing.

In this experiment, the cost of producing 1 cubic meter of hydrogen gas through wind power generation is only about 0.4 yuan, which means that the raw material cost per kilogram of hydrogen gas is less than 4 yuan, which greatly reduces the cost compared to coal based hydrogen production and natural gas based hydrogen production.

Will low-cost hydrogen production bring any practical value?

Worldwide Green Hydrogen Production

In a word, that is, the value exceeds imagination.

Throughout the world, based on the concept of environmental protection, carbon reduction, and emission reduction, hydrogen energy, as the leading green energy source, is being developed in various countries.

Hydrogen energy has been officially included in the government work report in 2019 in China, and pilot projects for hydrogen energy have also been carried out in various regions.

We can most intuitively understand the economic impact of the pilot project of seawater direct electrolysis hydrogen technology from one perspective - securities investment.

Before the emergence of this technology, securities companies were evaluated as being at the "average level" based on the "hydrogen production industry". However, after the successful pilot project, major securities companies issued investment suggestions, believing that the "offshore green hydrogen production" reached the "stronger than the benchmark market" level in securities.

This is because from a long-term perspective, the integrated model of "wind power generation+hydrogen energy storage" will become the future development trend, and hydrogen energy will replace natural gas as an important source of urban heating supply. However, the shortage lies in the lack of core technologies. Now that technology breakthroughs have begun to emerge, it means that the entire industry chain may undergo major upgrades, and major capitals are following suit.

At the same time, with the mastery of technology patents, we can directly export our technology to places such as Europe.

The EU released the EU Hydrogen Strategy in July 2020. According to estimates, the entire EU's demand for hydrogen by 2050 is approximately 56 million tons. In response to this large demand, the EU has already mentioned the need to cooperate with other countries and introduce new technologies.

epilogue

The development of electrolytic hydrogen has shown great potential in recent years with the promotion of carbon neutrality goals. However, large-scale industrial production still requires some time, and there is still a long way to go between small-scale pilot projects and large-scale commercial applications. There are many technologies that need to be verified, updated, and improved.

However, the technology mastered by our country this time can be said to be "unique" worldwide, temporarily avoiding being "stuck" by foreign countries in the field of hydrogen green energy.

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