Most industrial hydrogen producers currently make the gas by heating methane and water to 815 degrees Celsius and causing a reaction. Unfortunately, this process generates 9.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide for every kilo of hydrogen, so it’s not environmentally friendly or cheap.
Manufacturing Hydrogen by electrolysis involves cracking water molecules with electricity. It doesn’t directly produce any greenhouse gases or chemical residues so it’s the most environmentally friendly — although, of course, the electricity used will probably have come from a fossil fuel-burning power station. It may be expensive and time consuming, but QuantumSphere says it has a way around this problem with its more effective process using new electrodes.
It has devised an iron-nickel power for coating an electrode that speeds up the electrolysis process by increasing the reactive surface area, according to CEO Kevin Maloney.
‘The Stingray’ electrodes can produce 2.4 kilograms of hydrogen in 25 minutes. Standard electrodes can take hours or days, he said. As a result, the Stingray can produce hydrogen at $2.50 to $9 (£1.22 to £4.41) a kilo, not including subsidies.
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