Hydrogen is a clean and abundant source of fuel, but on the mainstream it still faces problems related to production efficiency, etc. The good news is that South Korea's Ulsan University of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea Energy Research Institute (KIER) Researchers at Shu-Min Women's University have developed a more efficient water electrolysis system based on the existing SOEC technology.
Members of the team, left from Junyoung Kim, Professor Guntae Kim, Ohhun Gwona.
The underlying principle is still to collect water by electrolysis of water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, with the difference that the Hybrid-SOEC system has been improved over electrodes and electrolytes - all in solid state!
It has several advantages over liquid electrolyte systems: first, the liquid needs to be filled up regularly; and secondly, over time, the liquid can erode the rest of the system.
In addition, the solid state electrolyzer can operate at high temperatures, which means that the new system is more energy efficient because it converts heat into energy for electrolysis.
Hybrid-SOEC efficient hydrogen system principle diagram
The researchers used different electrolytes in two main designs, one of which allowed only the passage of oxygen ions and the other allowed only the passage of hydrogen ions. However, this "one-way street" limited the total amount of hydrogen produced by the device the amount.
In view of this, they have developed a new Hybrid-SOEC system that uses both a mixed ion conductor to transport negative oxygen ions and charged hydrogen ions (protons) simultaneously to take full advantage of all the benefits of a solid state cell, Improve the efficiency of hydrogen production.
Hybrid-SOEC utilizes a hybrid ion conductor and electrode made of layered perovskite that produces 1.9 liters (0.5 gallons) of hydrogen per hour at a voltage of 1.5 V and a temperature of 700 ° C (1292 ° F) with efficiencies of More than four times the current system.