The University of Louisville’s Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research has shown that solar energy can create clean hydrogen fuel by converting water vapour from the air. The recently published paper Solar hydrogen production from seawater vapour electrolysis by Conn Center researchers Sudesh Kumari, R. Turner White, Bijandra Kumar and Joshua Spurgeon, details a proof-of-concept system that could operate efficiently at realistic conditions at the ocean’s surface. To be able to properly utilise the potential for solar energy, there must be both a large area of land and a proper storage system to account for cloudy days. The article discusses how to address these problems by switching to a hydrogen fuel from solar energy by splitting sea water vapour from ambient humidity at near surface ocean conditions.
