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The H2Pro’s innovation comes down to usage of electrolytic reactors, in which oxygen and hydrogen are generated at different stages of water splitting. This allows not only to abandon the use of the membrane, but also to produce hydrogen under high pressure, without expensive compressors. At the same time, thermal (instead of electrochemical) generation of oxygen provides higher energy efficiency. As a result, if the unit costs of green hydrogen production using standard electrolysers ranges from $3 to $6.5 per kg, then the H2Pro development should reduce the costs to $1 per kg.
Commercialisation of the development will expand the pool of new methods for hydrogen production. The solution to the problem of high energy intensity of H2 production was previously offered by HiiROC, which is going to produce hydrogen by converting biomethane and natural gas with thermal plasma electrolysis: hydrocarbons will be separated into hydrogen and carbon, which can be used for production of tires, rubbers and building materials. The innovation will be tested at the power plant in Brigg, in the east of England, in 2023.
The EPRO Advance Technology tried to solve another problem of the industry – high cost of transportation – by producing H2 from porous silicon (Si+), the raw material for which is metallurgical silicon: Si+, when in contact with water, generates hydrogen; this in many ways resembles the capsule way of making coffee. A similar solution will be used on the Neo Orbis ship, which will be launched at the port of Amsterdam in 2023: the hydrogen to be fed to the vessel’s fuel cells will be formed from a mixture of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) with water and a catalyst.
