While most people look at the ocean and see a beautiful sunset or a place to swim, University of Alberta chemistry professor Steve Bergens looks at the saltwater and the energy from the waves, tides, wind and sun, and sees an endless supply of fuel.
Bergens and his team have patented a process that creates hydrogen from water, including seawater. The technology, which has now been licensed by the Canadian company Cipher Neutron, could change how the world powers everything from heavy industry to remote communities.
Hydrogen is often discussed as a fuel of the future, but Bergens points out that it is already the foundation of our modern world.
"Hydrogen is everywhere. Now. It is the lifeblood of the economy," says Bergens. "You need it to make gasoline, you need it to make fertilizer, you need it to make vegetable oil, methanol, it's used for fuel. It's everywhere. And so making hydrogen efficiently, at a low cost without waste, has got to be one of the most important problems that everybody's working on."
Currently, most hydrogen is made from natural gas in large, centralized steam reformer plants. While effective, this process creates a massive amount of carbon dioxide. Bergens' goal was to find an alternative that produces zero emissions, using only water and electricity.
The science happens in a device called an electrolyzer, which uses two electrodes to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Teams of researchers have been working on this technology for decades, but the holdup has been the electrode that breaks water down to oxygen gas. As Bergens explains, water is a stable molecule so it needs harsh conditions to react, and this process is notoriously slow and expensive to run.
Researchers globally have been working to speed up this reaction using complex architectures and rare materials. Bergens' team took a different approach: they looked at the "glue" holding the components together.
His team developed a cheap, conductive glue made in a simple beaker using only low-cost materials and techniques. Not only did this combination stabilize the electrode, but it also dramatically sped up the breakdown of water. This allows the system to run on much less electricity, preventing energy waste.
Another hurdle in the race for water-based hydrogen production is the need for purified water. Most systems require salt to be removed first, which adds massive costs.
"Ninety-five per cent of the water on the planet is seawater," says Bergens. "We want to make it easy so anybody can make hydrogen from seawater and scale it to whatever they need."
Cipher Neutron, which focuses on developing electrolyzers for green hydrogen production and tests dozens of combinations every month, feels this innovation can significantly reduce the cost of hydrogen compared with other energy sources while improving durability, two critical factors for large-scale adoption.
"The oxygen evolution reaction - and particularly anode durability - has been a major challenge in electrolysis," says Ranny Dhillon, chief scientific officer of Cipher Neutron. "This technology directly addresses that challenge and opens new pathways for performance and long-term stability."
Because the process is so efficient, Bergens says it can be powered by anything - wind turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power, tides, conventional power - and it operates anywhere hydrogen is needed. Unlike massive centralized steam reformer hydrogen plants, these units could be plugged in even in the most remote coastal village.
"We've been saying that we should diversify the economy," Bergens says. "We've got the ability and opportunity to innovate here and do really cool things."
This research was supported by the U of A's Future Energy Systems.
