Green hydrogen production currently costs £2–5 per kilogram, roughly twice as much as fossil-fuel-based methods, and alkaline water electrolysers—the most mature technology—take about an hour to warm up before they can operate efficiently. This slow start-up makes it difficult to pair electrolysers with unpredictable renewable energy sources like solar and wind. The project aims to solve that by developing catalysts made from abundant materials such as cobalt and nickel that become significantly more active at higher temperatures. Instead of searching for entirely new catalysts, the researchers will explore how existing multi-element catalysts change their physical and chemical bonding structures when heated, and how those changes accelerate the hydrogen-production reaction. If successful, the work could make green hydrogen cheaper and more responsive to renewable energy supply. In hot climates like those of South Africa and Kenya, where ambient temperatures already reduce the need for pre-heating, these temperature-sensitive catalysts could allow electrolysers to start producing hydrogen almost immediately when renewable power is available. The project also establishes a formal research bridge between African and UK partners, laying groundwork for future joint funding applications and staff exchanges.
View original technical description
Hydrogen production via water electrolysis technology has been a major focus of discussions for practical carbon-neutral transportation fuel and a key component for other chemical syntheses for the past decade. Particularly, Africa’s total announced electrolyser pipeline capacity has reached 114 gigawatts. However, the costs of water electrolysis to be reported in the range of 2-5 £/kg H2, which is still twice as expensive as the existing fossil fuel-based technologies. Among various electrolyser technologies for hydrogen production, alkaline water electrolysis is considered to be the most mature type for industrial scale-up and has strong cost-effectiveness. Despite these advantages, its cold-start nature, unfortunately, requires a certain ramping-up time (approximately 1 hour). This makes it challenging to integrate with renewable energy sources, which are difficult to predict. Alkaline water electrolysis at elevated starting temperatures offers a promising solution to enhance catalytic reactivity and reduce required electric energy, increasing cost-effectiveness. The cobalt- and nickel-based catalysts, known for their prominent temperature dependence, could be the key to enhancing the hydrogen production rate. In this study, we aim to establish a feasible fabrication method of temperature-sensitive catalysts for alkaline water electrolysis and to explore the multi-element catalysts' physical and chemical bonding structure change at elevated temperature conditions. Exploring the underlying mechanism of intrinsic kinetics change is a challenging yet crucial step towards more efficient and cost-effective hydrogen production. The ultimate goal of the proposed collaboration entitled "Temperature-sensitive Earth-abundant Catalysts for green HYDROgen production (TECHydro)" is not to develop new catalysts but to discover new combinations that have a high-temperature sensitivity and explore underlying principles, giving rise to fresh perspectives of the developed catalyst for their application to AWE. The outcomes will provide a methodological achievement in cost-effective catalyst preparation. Moreover, the project will make a rigid bridge for further joint-research funding applications and staff exchange between African (South Africa and Kenya) and UK partners. We believe that the outcomes of this study could set benchmarks for hydrogen production that operates more efficiently in South Africa and Kenya's hot climate, contributing to the global transition towards a hydrogen economy.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know