ITMO Scientists Develop New Cheap And Quick Way To Produce Green Hydrogen

A team of researchers from ITMO have designed a new type of reactor that can quickly produce affordable green hydrogen. The technology uses magnets and nanoparticles to accelerate sixfold the process of water decomposition into hydrogen and oxygen, all while requiring 15% less energy than conventional methods. The lab-assembled reactor prototype is now ready for industrial testing. The resulting was published in Chemical Engineering Journal.

Hydrogen finds its applications in the chemical, oil-refining, glass, food, and metal industries – and at nuclear power plants. It is used to produce ammonia, methanol, various metals, and the solid fats used in margarine and soap. Moreover, hydrogen is an efficient green energy source. Industrially, it’s produced by heating methane and water vapor to 700-1,000 ^°C. However, this chemical reaction produces both hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

Water electrolysis is a more eco-conscious way to generate hydrogen; in this process, water disintegrates into hydrogen and oxygen – both harmless for the environment – with the help of electric current. The hydrogen acquired this way is often dubbed “green.” However, the method’s main industrial drawback is its cost.

Researchers from ITMO University have designed a new type of reactor for water electrolysis that will not only cheapen, but also accelerate this process. By modifying the reactor with magnets and covering its electrodes with iron-cobalt nanoparticles, they have demonstrated electrolysis reactions that are six times faster. Moreover, the amount of energy consumed by the reactor went down by 15%: to produce 1 kg of hydrogen, it requires 48.8 Kilowatt-hours instead of 57.3 Kilowatt-hours.

The main principle of the reactor remains the same: alkali is put in the liquids compartment, then two electrodes are placed inside and powered. In the solution, the circuit closes and, affected by the current, water molecules decompose into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen forms on the cathode (negatively charged electrode) and oxygen – on the anode (positively charged electrode).

“With magnets and magnetic nanoparticles, we produce two more effects: spin polarization and the hydrodynamic effect. The magnetic nanoparticles affect the electron states of intermediate water compounds to make them enter reactions faster and more efficiently. This helps us cut down on the energy needed to activate these processes. Even though they are also observed in conventional reactors, these processes are significantly less efficient and are caused exclusively by the electric current. What’s more, thanks to the combined action of the magnetic and electric fields, we can observe hydrodynamic effects. In a nutshell, the molecules in the solution mix ‘on their own,’ affected by the Lorentz and Kelvin forces. In standard reactors, this is done manually; it is a necessary step to intensify the separation of reaction products and deliver reagents to the electrodes,” explains Ilya Shabalnkin, a PhD student of ITMO’s ChemBio Cluster and a junior researcher at the university’s Advanced Engineering School.

All of the described reactions were observed during experiments on a semi-industrial prototype of the reactor, assembled at an ITMO lab. The chemists synthesized the nanoparticles and 3D-printed the most efficiently shaped polymer parts for the reactor. Next, the team will seek out industrial partners in hopes of testing their prototype in an industrial setting.

This study was supported by the national program Priority 2030.