A University of California, Berkeley chemist has engineered a breakthrough in electrolyser technology that could substantially extend system lifetime and support the commercial viability of low-cost green hydrogen. The innovation centres on a redesigned electrode structure that reduces wear in membrane electrolysers, a promising but currently costly method for producing clean hydrogen.

Hydrogen plays an essential role across sectors including heavy transport, fertiliser production, chemical manufacturing and long-duration energy storage. Yet most hydrogen is still produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal, generating large quantities of carbon dioxide and carrying the environmental impacts associated with extraction and combustion. Green hydrogen, created through water electrolysis with oxygen as the sole by-product, offers a cleaner alternative—but remains too expensive for widespread adoption.

Redesigned Electrolysers Could Unlock Cost-Competitive Green Hydrogen

As intermittent wind and solar generation continue to expand, electrolysers are expected to play a critical role in absorbing excess renewable electricity and converting it into hydrogen for later use. However, for electrolysers to operate viably at low utilisation rates, their manufacturing costs must decrease substantially. A major challenge has been the durability of systems that use ion-conducting polymers, as their electrodes tend to degrade rapidly during operation.

Professor Shannon Boettcher and his team have been developing next-generation electrolysis technologies that rely on ion-conducting polymers to dramatically lower the cost of green hydrogen production. Until now, poor stability has limited commercial feasibility. Their latest research demonstrates a redesigned membrane-electrode interface that protects electrodes from wear, greatly improving operational stability.

Boettcher notes that if the approach continues to show promise, membrane electrolysers could become significantly cheaper. “If you can make this really work, it’s not unreasonable to expect a 5x or 10x reduction in the cost of these membrane electrolysers,” he said. Such reductions would enable them to operate as flexible, variable-load offtakers of low-cost renewable electricity.

Source:

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