American Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Articles Information
American Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Vol.1, No.2, Jul. 2015, Pub. Date: Jul. 16, 2015
A Review on Electrolytic Method of Hydrogen Production from Water
Pages: 51-57 Views: 4207 Downloads: 2913
Authors
[01] Kwasi-Effah C. C., Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
[02] Obanor A. I., Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
[03] Aisien F. A., Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Abstract
Generally, renewable energy has a large potential to displace emissions of green house gases from the combustion of fossil fuels and mitigate climate change. Renewable energy source can serve as alternative to non-renewable fossil fuel, which is depleting gradually. However, not all renewable energy source and energy carriers are clean, such as biogas, biodiesel etc. All of these energy carrier which finds major application in transportation and power industries contribute to environmental pollution when burnt. These energy carriers are needed to continually drive the growth rate of a country’s economic development. Thus it is more practical to explore on cleaner source of energy and energy carrier such as hydrogen from water. Hydrogen, a clean energy carrier, exists in enormous quantities, but people are unaware of it or its significance in daily life because it maintains a low profile in combination with other elements such as petrol and other hydrocarbon fuels. More than 70% of hydrogen existing in our economy is produced by steam reforming. This method has been considered to be the cheapest means of producing hydrogen however, during production large quantities of green house gases are released into the environment. Based on this fact, this method has become unsuitable for our environment. Producing hydrogen by splitting water using the method of electrolysis can be a simple method to achieve clean hydrogen production. This method has the advantage of being able to produce hydrogen using clean renewable clean energy sources such as wind, solar etc. Common technology of utilizing solar panel as source of electricity for hydrogen production by electrolytic process can be very expensive. This also increases the amount of energy losses in the production process. Thus, to expand the use of hydrogen production by direct water splitting with the method of electrolysis, it is mandatory to reduce energy consumption, cost, and maintenance of current electrolyzers and, on the other hand, to increase their efficiency, durability, and safety. Since the stirling engine can utilize solar energy as source of fuel and has shown to be more efficient than solar pv, thus in our own opinion, utilizing a stirling engine as source for powering electrolyzers to produce hydrogen for expanded use of energy in various engineering system will be a cost effective method in realizing a hydrogen economy. This paper briefly discusses the various points of concern and issues regarding non-renewable energy, hydrogen production from water and hydrogen economy.
Keywords
Hydrogen, Electrolysis, Renewable Energy, Global Warming, Fossil Fuel, Stirling Engine
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