Hydrogen production via water electrolysis at high temperature and pressure

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As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to rise, reaching the 2°C targets (announced in Paris in 2015) will require breakthroughs in disruptive technologies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In collaboration with our industrial partner, Carbon Engineering (CE), we are improving the technologies required to absorb CO2 through Direct Air Capture (DAC) and produce fuels to reduce emissions from distributed sources, e.g., aeroplanes, trucks, and ships. CE has built and is operating a DAC demonstration plant in Squamish, BC, with the goal to capture 500 kg CO2 per day. The most challenging scientific and technical barriers for the CO2-to-fuels pathway include developing a reliable and cost-efficient way to produce carbon-neutral hydrogen for the conversion of CO2 into fuels. Currently, water electrolysis is utilized in the process as a source of hydrogen, but it is expensive. By increasing the temperature and pressure of the electrolytic process, one can achieve higher conversion efficiencies and subsequently cheaper hydrogen. However, only a couple of research scale demonstrations exist so far and none with hydrogen collection. The proposed research aims to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of air-to-fuel conversion by exploring a pathway for cheaper hydrogen. This is done by using the first system in the world able to run electrochemistry and collect hydrogen at conditions up to and beyond the supercritical point of water (374ºC/220 bar). The aim of the project is to i) evaluate and establish the optimum conditions for water electrolysis at high temperatures, ii) explore and identify optimum electrode materials, and iii) experimentally demonstrate and economically assess hydrogen production at high temperatures.