China develops plant to extract hydrogen, fresh water and uranium from the sea
Chinese scientists have built a small, stable co-production plant that uses one system to extract hydrogen and fresh water from seawater, while also recovering uranium and bromine and improving electricity use efficiency by about 15 per cent. The team, led by Deng Dehui and Liu Yanting from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, improved on an existing technology…
Chinese scientists have developed a small, efficient co-production plant capable of extracting hydrogen, fresh water, and uranium from seawater. Led by Deng Dehui and Liu Yanting from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, the team enhanced an existing technology that has been both costly and energy-intensive.
Their innovative design incorporates a desalination unit that utilizes waste heat from the electrolysis process to create fresh water and recover valuable marine resources. The 250kW plant, which produced 380,000 standard cubic metres of hydrogen per year with 99.9999 percent purity, also generated 256 tonnes of fresh water. In comparison to traditional methods, the Chinese researchers' system improved electricity utilisation by 14.4 percent, offering a more economically competitive solution.
With an estimated average cost of US$2.1 per kilogram when using onshore wind energy, and US$2.9 per kilogram from solar power, the system has the potential to revolutionise hydrogen production. Future research will focus on improving catalysts, optimising heat recovery, and leveraging artificial intelligence to maximise overall system efficiency.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
