Scientists may have finally figured out a viable way to create green hydrogen—the purest and most climate-neutral form of hydrogen fuel. The secret, according to new research published in Frontiers in Science, is a proof-of-concept battery built using photocatalytic sheets that can split water using nothing but the power of sunlight.
According to the researchers behind the new paper, utilizing sunlight-driven water splitting to create hydrogen is one of the most ideal ways to approach solar-to-chemical energy conversation and storage. Currently, most of the hydrogen we use for fuel is created using natural gas. As such, it doesn’t really help with the fight against global warming.
However, combining photocatalysts—materials that promote a chemical reaction—with the power of sunlight could very well give us the kind of hydrogen reactor we need to properly create green hydrogen. However, the researchers note that only relying on a single photocatalyst to complete the process is inefficient.
Instead, they say that a process where we rely on a photocatalyst for each part of the process is much more efficient. There’s also the obvious fact that solar energy conversion technology can’t really operate at night, as the sun isn’t out. That’s why it’s important to store the energy of sunlight as a chemical energy of fuel materials, the researchers explain in a press statement.
Of course, this all sounds good on paper. But there are still some big challenges to face. While the two-step process is more efficient, it also needs materials robust enough to withstand the daily start-up and shut-down operations while still being as efficient and small as possible.
Developing efficient solar-to-chemical energy conversation by photocatalyst is the most important aspect of the process, though. If researchers can improve it to a practical and commercially viable level, then we could see green hydrogen as an obtainable fuel source sometime in the future.
Along with plans to one day create fusion reactors, this could help propel us into a new age of cleaner energy.
