Distributed solar driven hydrogen generation with water cleaning

The increase of the Earth´s population has put great pressure on access to energy and food, but also large problems with sustainable waste management.

This project targets two of these challenges: production of hydrogen, H2, to replace fossil fuels, combined with cleaning of waste water. The best approach for green H2 generation is considered to be water splitting (electrolysis) using solar or wind power. There are however other molecules than water that produces H2 upon electrolysis, and at a much lower potential.

One such molecules is urea, a common environmental pollutant discharged from domestic excretion, agricultural fertilizers, and industrial production.

Therefore, urea-assisted hydrogen evolution efficiently generates clean hydrogen energy and alleviates environmental pollution. The goal of this project is to develop electrode materials for efficient urea electrolysis.

The electro-catalytic process will be driven by photovoltaics, enabling local fuel production, while simultaneously cleaning domestic wastewater.

The project will synergistically develop research expertise on materials for sustainable energy solutions focusing on material and electrode synthesis (India), advanced characterisation and modelling (Sweden) for PV assisted electrocatalysis (jointly).

Apart from demonstrating a solar fuel device, the project will also explore the commercial and societal ecosystem for fuel production from wastewater.