Hydrogen generation with acid/alkaline amphoteric water electrolysis

To reduce the energy consumption of the electrolytic hydrogen generation process, we propose a novel approach to generate hydrogen with acidic/alkaline amphoteric water electrolysis, wherein hydrogen is produced inside an acidic solution and oxygen evolved under alkaline condition, and a membrane is employed in the middle of the electrolyzer to restrain neutralization. The electrode polarization is greatly reduced due to the specific arrangement of the acidic/alkaline amphoteric electrolyzer. The rate of hydrogen production achieves over four times higher than that of the alkaline aqueous solution at 2.2 V, and the energy consumption is reduced approximately 30% under the current density of 200 mA/cm2. The investigation of transmembrane potential drop indicates water splitting on the membrane surfaces, which compensates for acid or alkaline loss on-site and maintains the concentration approximately constant during electrolysis process. The acidic/alkaline amphoteric water electrolysis is promising as an energy saving, clean and sustainable hydrogen production technology.