Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) researchers have found that sound can drastically improve hydrogen production through water electrolysis.
Alkaline water electrolysers (AWE) and proton exchange membrane water electrolysers (PEMWE) are currently the most commercially available and used electrolysers for producing hydrogen, as they both offer many advantages such as: well-established technologies, ease of use, compact system design, quick response, high dynamic operations, high current densities, great hydrogen production rate of acceptable purity (99.99+%) and fairly high energy efficiencies (<90%).
However, cost, efficiency, and durability need to be further improved. To add to these, they both suffer from molecular hydrogen (and oxygen) bubble accumulation and adhesion (“stickiness”) at the water electrolyser electrode surfaces, and in the electrolyte (solution) flowing in the flow channels, leading to a high ohmic voltage drop (resistance) and a large reaction overpotential in turn yielding high operational energy consumption and costs.
Professor Pollet, Mr. Islam and Dr. Emberson, researchers at the Hydrogen Energy and Sonochemistry Research Labs, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, however, found that sound could improve the process.
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