New review article inNature Reviews Clean Technology Introducing the DWE technology developed at the Technion – membrane-free split electrolysis, which will enable efficient, safe, and inexpensive green hydrogen production on an industrial scale
A groundbreaking technology for producing green hydrogen for the future energy market – this is the subject of a new review article in the journal Nature Reviews Clean TechnologyThe article reviews new methods for hydrogen production, some of which were developed at the Technion by Prof. Avner Rothschild, Prof. Gidi Gerder, Dr. Chen Dotan, and Dr. Avigail Landman. The methods developed by this team led to the founding of the company H2Pro, which is developing them for the commercial production of hydrogen in an innovative process adapted to renewable energies.
The lead authors of the article are Technion researchers Prof. Avner Rothschild and postdoctoral student Dr. Glenn Rowan from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. Additional authors are Rotem Arad and Gilad Yogev from H2Pro, Prof. Mark Symes and doctoral student Fiona Todman from the University of Glasgow, Prof. Jens Olof Jensen from the Technical University of Denmark, and Dr. Tom Smolinka from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany.
Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis – the electrical decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen. Conventional electrolysis relies on two electrodes separated by a membrane and breaks down water molecules into their constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen. This is an expensive process that involves hydrogen leaking towards oxygen and is not adapted to the volatility that characterizes renewable energies such as solar and wind. In addition, membranes are an expensive component of the system, requiring expensive maintenance and care.
The breakthrough reviewed in the article is called MUST – Hydrogen production by split electrolysis that produces hydrogen and oxygen in different cells or at different timesThe result: complete separation of hydrogen and oxygen production, without the need for a membrane to separate them as is common in other electrolysis processes. This process has inherent advantages in terms of safety, efficiency, and cost.
Prof. Mark Symes from the University of Glasgow led the initial development of fractional electrolysis as early as 2013. Two years later, in 2015, Prof. Rothschild and his colleagues at the Technion developed a new technology based on nickel-based electrodes. This development led to a patent and the founding of H2Pro in 2019. This company has since been working on improving the hydrogen production process and adapting it for commercial-scale production (scaling up). H2Pro is currently preparing to install the world’s first DWE system – a system that will successfully cope with the volatility that characterizes renewable energy sources. This review is the first to present in detail the applicable strategies for developing commercial-scale DWE systems. Compared to laboratory model systems, which allow the production of less than a gram of hydrogen per day, industrial systems would be required to produce a ton per day – a million times – per unit, and in order to satisfy global demand for hydrogen, about a million such units would be required, or even more, considering the expected growth in the hydrogen market.
Unlike existing technologies, which are not suitable for working with fluctuating energy sources such as solar and wind, the DWE production system functions as an electrolysis system equipped with an internal battery; thus, it masks the volatility in the electricity production that feeds it and is therefore suitable for working with renewable energy sources.
The hydrogen market is currently worth $250 billion a year, and the transition to commercial production of green hydrogen could more than double that amount in the coming decade. According to Prof. Rothschild"Green hydrogen is expected to capture a share of about 10% of the overall energy market in the future. Once hydrogen production becomes possible on a commercial scale and at competitive prices, green hydrogen will replace a large part of the fuels we currently use in heavy transportation (trucks, trains, ships and airplanes) and in industrial sectors such as steel production, fertilizers and other materials. Traditional electrolysis systems require redevelopment, evolution, in order to work with renewable energy sources, and as Darwin said, in evolution it is not the strongest that survive but those who adapt best to changes in the environment in which they live. I believe that DWE brings new news in the ability to produce green hydrogen from renewable sources."
More of the topic in Hayadan:
6 תגובות
This company is already 5 or six years old. Is anyone here giving it a CPR? There is a much more efficient method for producing green hydrogen without electrolysis and without using electricity at all.
There is also a more effective electrolysis method than h2pro, but the developer is unable to raise money.
I once drove a hydrogen-powered car. It was at the Detroit airport, the car manufacturing capital of the US. It was a van, made by Ford, with about 10 seats, that connected the two terminals at the airport. There weren't many options for getting from one terminal to the other – a Ford van, walking about two kilometers, and taking a taxi, which wasn't found. So I drove in a van. It was a Ford demonstration car, built with government funding. On the back of the car were 5-6 hydrogen tanks, each about 20 cm in diameter and about a meter and a half high. The kind you see in welders for oxygen, acetylene, etc. There's hydrogen in there at 200 atmospheres. I kept thinking about what would happen if there was an accident and the car was hit from behind. The only consolation was that it would probably be a quick death. I would hear and feel a blow from behind, a hiss of gas escaping, I wouldn't hear the explosion anymore. And after this first accident there would be no more "hydrogen economy."
So…. they took electrolysis and connected it to a battery? Is that the patent? Sounds a bit like a joke.
Nonsense. There is nothing and there will be nothing. Just like the laser and the corona vaccine. It's just to get budgets that will lead to nothing
It is to be hoped that they will not steal intellectual property like the scientists at the Whitman Institute, the research institutes at the public hospitals and the universities, which the state funds with hundreds of millions of dollars, who develop a patent or an economic invention, steal the patent, register a company and become millionaires at the public's expense and while stealing public intellectual property. To date, doctors, researchers at public organizations and research institutes have stolen patents worth hundreds of billions from the people of Israel who funded them. Behind the scenes, and we are talking about an elite and not a hired taxi or bus driver who does private work on his employers' property and who is brought to justice, these are the ones who are allowed by their colleagues in the prosecutor's office to ignore the robbery and theft in broad daylight.
Amazing...and in two words: Well done.
What a vision, what wisdom...pride. Keep it up.