Hydrogen has great potential as a clean fuel: it is plentiful (especially in water), does not pollute the atmosphere, and can be used to store energy. One problem is that it is still difficult and expensive to obtain it on an industrial scale, and perhaps Australian scientists have now come up with a solution.
Clean drinking water is not available in many regions of our planet, and devices that can get it from the air with minimal resources are very much needed there. And the possibility of producing hydrogen fuel as a by-product makes such technology even more in demand Science Alert reported.
The University of Melbourne has assembled a prototype device that takes water from saturated air and then splits it into hydrogen and oxygen. Moreover, the device can work in regions with extremely low humidity. The electrolyzer is powered by energy from renewable sources.
The water collection unit consists of a sponge material, which also acts as a reservoir for the electrolyte, and electrodes isolated from air. Thus, hydrogen and oxygen can remain pure gases after splitting.
The prototype was successfully tested in the field. The direct air electrolysis module worked non-stop for 12 days, absorbing moisture from an atmosphere with a relative humidity of 4% and producing hydrogen.
Although the development of this technology has just begun, the authors of the invention are convinced that they can improve and scale it by increasing the surface-to-volume ratio or adding channels to the sponge material. This will increase the rate at which water is absorbed from the air.
Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have developed a revolutionary technology in its simplicity and low cost for obtaining drinking water. It is a gel film that draws water from dry air – at a low humidity of 30%, the system produces 13 liters of water per day using one kilogram of gel.