Researchers have developed a cheaper and more energy-efficient way to make hydrogen directly from seawater, in a critical step towards a truly viable green hydrogen industry. The new method splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen — skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions.

研究人员已经开发出一种更便宜、更节能的方法，直接从海水中制造氢，这是迈向真正可行的绿色氢工业的关键一步。这种新方法直接将海水分解为氢和氧，不需要海水淡化，也不需要相关的成本、能源消耗和碳排放。

The new method from RMIT University researchers splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen — skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions.

RMIT大学研究人员的新方法直接将海水分解为氢和氧，跳过了海水淡化及其相关成本、能源消耗和碳排放的需要。

Hydrogen has long been touted as a clean future fuel and a potential solution to critical energy challenges, especially for industries that are harder to decarbonise like manufacturing, aviation and shipping.

长期以来，氢一直被吹捧为一种清洁的未来燃料，是解决关键能源挑战的潜在解决方案，尤其是对于制造业、航空和航运等更难脱碳的行业。

Almost all the world’s hydrogen currently comes from fossil fuels and its production is responsible for around 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year*, equivalent to the annual emissions of the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined.

目前，世界上几乎所有的氢都来自化石燃料，其生产每年产生约8.3亿吨二氧化碳*，相当于英国和印度尼西亚年排放量的总和。

But emissions-free ‘green’ hydrogen, made by splitting water, is so expensive that it is largely commercially unviable and accounts for just 1% of total hydrogen production globally.

但是，通过分解水来制造无排放的“绿色”氢是如此昂贵，以至于在商业上基本上是不可行的，而且只占全球氢气总产量的1%。

Lead researcher Dr Nasir Mahmood, a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT, said green hydrogen production processes were both costly and relied on fresh or desalinated water.

首席研究员、皇家墨尔本理工大学副校长高级研究员纳西尔·马哈茂德博士说，绿色制氢过程既昂贵，又依赖于淡水或淡化水。

“We know hydrogen has immense potential as a clean energy source, particularly for the many industries that can’t easily switch over to be powered by renewables,” Mahmood said.

马哈茂德说:“我们知道氢作为一种清洁能源具有巨大的潜力，特别是对于许多不能轻易转换为可再生能源的行业。”

“But to be truly sustainable, the hydrogen we use must be 100% carbon-free across the entire production life cycle and must not cut into the world’s precious freshwater reserves.

“但要真正实现可持续发展，我们使用的氢气在整个生产周期中必须100%无碳，并且不能削减世界上宝贵的淡水储备。

“Our method to produce hydrogen straight from seawater is simple, scaleable and far more cost-effective than any green hydrogen approach currently in the market.

“我们直接从海水中生产氢气的方法简单，可扩展，比目前市场上任何绿色氢方法都更具成本效益。

“With further development, we hope this could advance the establishment of a thriving green hydrogen industry in Australia.”

“随着进一步的发展，我们希望这可以推动澳大利亚建立一个蓬勃发展的绿色氢产业。”

A provisional patent application has been filed for the new method, detailed in a lab-scale study published in Wiley journal, Small.

这项新方法的临时专利申请已经提交，详细内容发表在威利杂志《Small》上的一项实验室规模的研究中。

Splitting the difference: a catalyst for seawater

区别在于:海水的催化剂

To make green hydrogen, an electrolyser is used to send an electric current through water to split it into its component elements of hydrogen and oxygen.

为了制造绿色氢，使用电解槽将电流通过水，将其分解为氢和氧的组成元素。

These electrolysers currently use expensive catalysts and consume a lot of energy and water — it can take about nine litres to make one kilogram of hydrogen. They also have a toxic output: not carbon dioxide, but chlorine.

这些电解槽目前使用昂贵的催化剂，消耗大量的能量和水——生产一公斤氢需要大约9升的能量和水。它们还会产生有毒物质:不是二氧化碳，而是氯。

“The biggest hurdle with using seawater is the chlorine, which can be produced as a by-product. If we were to meet the world’s hydrogen needs without solving this issue first, we’d produce 240 million tons per year of chlorine each year — which is three to four times what the world needs in chlorine. There’s no point replacing hydrogen made by fossil fuels with hydrogen production that could be damaging our environment in a different way,” Mahmood said.

“使用海水的最大障碍是氯，它可以作为副产品产生。如果我们在不首先解决这个问题的情况下满足世界对氢的需求，我们每年将生产2.4亿吨氯——这是世界所需氯的三到四倍。用氢气生产来替代化石燃料产生的氢气是没有意义的，因为这可能会以另一种方式破坏我们的环境，”马哈茂德说。

“Our process not only omits carbon dioxide, but also has no chlorine production.”

“我们的工艺不仅不产生二氧化碳，而且不产生氯。”

The new approach devised by a team in the multidisciplinary Materials for Clean Energy and Environment (MC2E) research group at RMIT uses a special type of catalyst developed to work specifically with seawater.

RMIT清洁能源与环境材料多学科研究小组(MC2E)的一个团队设计的新方法使用了一种特殊类型的催化剂，专门用于海水。

The study, with PhD candidate Suraj Loomba, focused on producing highly efficient, stable catalysts that can be manufactured cost-effectively.

博士候选人Suraj Loomba的研究重点是生产高效、稳定的催化剂，并且具有高成本效益。

“These new catalysts take very little energy to run and could be used at room temperature,” Mahmood said.

马哈茂德说:“这些新的催化剂只需要很少的能量就能运行，而且可以在室温下使用。”

“While other experimental catalysts have been developed for seawater splitting, they are complex and hard to scale.

“虽然已经开发了其他用于海水分裂的实验催化剂，但它们很复杂，难以规模化。

Read more at ScienceDaily.org

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