It’s actually not that surprising, and not really a breakthrough - since it is platinum catalyzed. Which is the same as saying “dead in the water.” Since only the production rate increases and not the electrical efficiency - the cost of electrical input per unit of H2 is the same. The overhead is lowered, but that cost component is relatively insignificant compared to electricity.
As long as natural gas remains cheap, electrolysis of water makes little
sense if it requires platinum or any rare element. The water-gas shift
reaction, which is over 200 years old but could have been done in the bronze
age, is almost an order of magnitude cheaper than any kind of electrolysis
for producing hydrogen (with NG at the present rate).
OTOH – natural gas will run out sometime in the future.
From: Lane Davis
Sounds crazy. But published in Science today. That lends
credence.
http://m.phys.org/news/2014-09-hydrogen-production-breakthrough-herald-cheap
.html
http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_358595_en.html
You guys know anything about this?
Thanks.
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