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Lab Develops Breakthrough 'Superclean' Hydrogen Fuel

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore Lab developed a process that produces 'superclean' energy while also reducing ocean acidification.


Written by Beatrice Karnes

Running your car on safe, abundant, affordable hydrogen is now one step closer, thanks to scientists right here at Lawrence Livermore Lab.

The scientists have demonstrated a system that uses the acidity normally produced in saline water electrolysis to accelerate silicate mineral dissolution while producing hydrogen fuel and other gases. That mouthful boils down to this—they’re fixing sea water that’s messed up by climate change while producing hydrogen fuel at the same time.

"We not only found a way to remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while producing valuable H2, we also suggest that we can help save marine ecosystems with this new technique," said Greg Rau, an LLNL visiting scientist, senior scientist at UC Santa Cruz and lead author of a paper appearing this week (May 27) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That’s huge. The oceans passively absorb carbon dioxide that modern society produces. That carbon dioxide raises the acidity of the water. Without intervention, by the middle of this century ocean acidity is expected to be 60 percent higher than pre-industrial levels. Current acidity levels are already killing coral reefs and damaging aquatic ecosystems.

The system developed at the Lab is better than previous attempts to harness hydrogen energy because they were cumbersome, inefficient and expensive.

"Our process avoids most of these issues by not requiring CO2 to be concentrated from air and stored in a molecular form, pointing the way to more cost-effective, environmentally beneficial, and safer air CO2 management with added benefits of renewable hydrogen fuel production and ocean alkalinity addition," Rau said.

The scientists are continuing their research.

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