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- Published: 14 March 2024
Efficient osmosis-powered production of green hydrogen
- Qirui Liang 1 , 2 , 3 ,
- Yanan Huang ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0509-7433 1 ,
- Yaxin Guo 1 ,
- Xin Zhang 1 ,
- Xiaomeng Hu 1 ,
- Hui Zeng 1 , 4 ,
- Kang Liang ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3985-7688 5 ,
- Dongyuan Zhao ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8440-6902 1 ,
- Lei Jiang ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4579-728X 6 &
- Biao Kong ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3251-5071 1 , 3 , 7 , 8
Nature Sustainability ( 2024 ) Cite this article
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Hydrogen, a clean energy carrier, has emerged as a promising solution to decarbonize the power sector and move towards a more sustainable future. However, the heavy dependence of its production on fossil fuels highlights the pressing need to prioritize the acquisition of green hydrogen from renewable sources, ideally without any additional energy input. Here we utilize the osmotic energy between seawater and freshwater to generate hydrogen directly. With a tandem of high-performance ion exchange membrane and electrocatalytic electrode, our design serves to harvest osmotic energy and drive hydrogen production. Notably, the integrated device demonstrates a consistent alkaline hydrogen evolution rate exceeding 300 l m −2 h −1 for more than 12 days under the artificial salinity gradient. Our study presents a viable pathway for hydrogen production through renewable sources.
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Acknowledgements
B.K. acknowledges funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21974029, 3022105042), the Yiwu Research Institute Program of Fudan University (20-1-28), the Yantai Science and Technology Innovation Development Plan (No. 2022ZDCX015), and the construction project of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging (18DZ2260400). We thank O. Terasaki (ShanghaiTech University) for valuable suggestions and comments.
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Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Shanghai Key Lab of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Centre of Chemistry for Energy Materials), Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China
Qirui Liang, Yanan Huang, Yaxin Guo, Xin Zhang, Xiaomeng Hu, Hui Zeng, Dongyuan Zhao & Biao Kong
Qingdao Innovation and Development Center, Harbin Engineering University, Qingdao, P. R. China
Qirui Liang
Shandong Research Institute, Fudan University, Shandong, P. R. China
Qirui Liang & Biao Kong
Key Laboratory of Advanced Drug Delivery Systems of Zhejiang Province, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P. R. China
School of Chemical Engineering and Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China
Shandong Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Functional Materials, Zibo, Shandong, P. R. China
Yiwu Research, Institute of Fudan University, Yiwu, Zhejiang, P. R. China
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B.K. conceived the work and directed the project. Q.L. and B.K. designed the experiments and drafted the initial manuscript. Y.H., Y.G. and X.Z. helped with computational calculations. X.H. and H.Z. contributed to experimental data collection and analysis. B.K., L.J., D.Z. and K.L. supervised the research, discussed the results, provided useful suggestions on experiment designs, and helped revise the manuscript.
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Correspondence to Biao Kong .
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Liang, Q., Huang, Y., Guo, Y. et al. Efficient osmosis-powered production of green hydrogen. Nat Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01317-7
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Published : 14 March 2024
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01317-7
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