Green hydrogen production using proton membrane electrolysis of clean drinking water

Abstract

With the EU’s green strategy and its member countries making a conscious effort to move away from fossil fuels and cut greenhouse gas emissions, there has been an uptick in technologies that produce green energy. Power-to-X has become an important topic in recent times, due to the so-called emission-free process of creating hydrogen from excess renewable energy. This research investigated this claim of being emission-free by analysing the method of obtaining extremely clean (pure) drinking water to produce hydrogen. A linear equation was produced that determines the carbon dioxide (CO2) intensity per kilowatt-hour of electricity used in producing a kilogram of water used to produce hydrogen. It was found that carbon dioxide emissions were produced by small-, medium- and large-capacity projects based in Denmark. Indicatively, for a 1 GW project facility, it was calculated that such a plant can produce 160 161 kg of carbon dioxide per year, so apparently, nothing comes without a cost.