TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A research team at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) has developed an alkaline electrolysis seawater hydrogen production prototype, allowing hydrogen to be obtained from water.
According to an NSYSU press release on Tuesday (May 28), Professor Chen Chun-hu (陳軍互) from the chemistry department led the team to develop the green hydrogen technology.
The team explained that hydrogen is essential for industrial activities, serving as a raw material for producing ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, and rocket fuel, per CNA. Compared to other methods, making hydrogen through water electrolysis is the cleanest and most sustainable.
Chen said the prototype is 70 cm in length, 60 cm in width, and 74 cm in height. “This prototype can electrolyze seawater and normal water to produce hydrogen, with a maximum hydrogen output exceeding a hundred times that of laboratory-grade components, confirming the feasibility of large-scale hydrogen production,” he added.
Chen said two major issues in global large-scale seawater hydrogen production are the toxicity of chlorine gas and seawater corrosion. The team’s proprietary acidic redox-assisted deposition (ARD) technology addresses these issues and enables the mass production of catalysts over 100 square centimeters in size.
Chen stressed that as an island nation, Taiwan could gradually reduce its dependency on imported energy and avoid energy supply disruptions due to regional conflicts by converting seawater into hydrogen on a long-term basis.