EMIT’s high efficiency green hydrogen producing technology by sound waves
RMIT university researchers in Melbourne Australia claim to have unlocked cheaper, high efficiency green hydrogen producing techniques which are boosted by sound waves.
The high frequency vibration enable the standard electrolysis process to produce 14 times the normal amount of hydrogen. The power source used to run this process is obtained from a totally renewable energy source, such as wind or hydroelectric power.
https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2022/dec/green-hydrogen
The green hydrogen produced by this process is of a higher density of electrons and supports a much higher rate of refuelling, in comparison to conventional batteries which simply don’t carry enough charge, or their charging duration is too long.
Green hydrogen is created using the process of electrolysis elements, oxygen and hydrogen, attracting each gas to a different electrode to separate and store the hydrogen.
So why is the process more efficient when run by a 10 Mhz sound wave?
We still explore a few of the reasons. Primarily water vibration has the effect of frustrating water molecules closest to the electrodes, shaking them out of their tetrahedral network, and as a result it creates more free water molecules that make contact with the electrodes.
Secondly, as the separate gases collect in the form of bubbles on the electrodes, the increased vibrations shake the bubbles free resulting in an acceleration of the electrolysis.
Bubbling forming on the electrodes can block the contact the water has with them, and actually impedes the process, so this increased shaking speeds up the process considerably.
The sound also generates positively charged water ions(Hydronium) and convection currents that enable mass transfer.
So the RMIT researchers chose to use a certain type of electrode that usually performs poorly, in comparison to the usual expensive electrodes used made from platinum or iridium.
Instead they went with much cheaper gold electrode, and a neutral Ph level electrolyte. Even with these inferior components, their current density and reaction rate has risen 14 fold.
This situation goes to show that it isn’t the quantity of energy that you put into an electrolyser that increase the production, but a case that the water is being split more efficiently and easily.
The impressive efficiency ratio achieved by the research team is simply astounding. Professor Leslie Yeo, one of the RMIT researchers said: “With our method, we can potentially improve the conversion efficiency leading to a net – positive energy saving of 27%.”
The team firmly believes that their new process can pave the way to bringing down the costs, and increasing productivity of creating future sustainable supplies of green hydrogen.
The research is open access, and available to read the Advanced Materials Energy journal that is peer reviewed journal.
source: rmit.edu.au, energynews
