South Korean scientists have developed a photocatalyst that can significantly
increase the efficiency of producing hydrogen from sunlight, the government said
Thursday.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said a
research team led by Lee Jae-sung, a professor of chemical engineering from the
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), devised a method to make
large quantities of hydrogen.
Hydrogen is a key natural resource and
has the potential to be used in next generation power cells that may effectively
replace fossils fuel. The drawback to this clean alternative fuel is that the
cost and energy needed to make usable hydrogen offsets any benefits at
present.
Existing experimental photocatalyst processes use bismuth
vanadate for electrodes that absorb natural sunlight. This process releases
electrons that react with water to produce hydrogen.
The use of
bismuth vanadate alone, however, produces low hydrogen conversion rates so
POSTECH researchers added tungsten oxide to the production process and vastly
raised efficiency.
"The heterojunction photocatalyst electrode made by
this merging has been tested to boost hydrogen production efficiency by 74
percent," the research team claimed.
It did not go into details on the
cost of the process compared to current production methods, but stressed it has
commercial potential.
The science ministry, which supported the
research, said efforts are underway to start commercially viable hydrogen
production using this technology by around 2020.
The latest findings
have been published by the prestigious Advanced Materials journal and by
Britain's Energy and Environment Science journal.
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