Environment & Energy

Caribbeans

(1,191 posts) Mon Jun 23, 2025, 06:29 PM Monday

Chinese scientists set new efficiency record for solar-to-hydrogen conversion

Xinhua | huaxia | 2025-06-17

Researchers at China's Tianjin University have achieved a milestone in solar-powered hydrogen production, developing a semi-transparent photoanode that pushes solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency to a record 5.1 percent.

The breakthrough, published in Nature Communications, offers a promising pathway for scalable "artificial leaf" technology, reported Science and Technology Daily on Tuesday.

"Artificial leaves" are silicon-based devices using solar energy to split hydrogen and oxygen in water, thereby producing hydrogen energy in a clean way.

Led by Wang Tuo, a professor from the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, the research team addressed critical limitations in unbiased solar water splitting systems, which produce hydrogen without external voltage.

Their innovative indium sulfide (In₂S₃ ) photoanode overcomes the traditional trade-off between conductivity and light transparency...more
https://english.news.cn/20250617/364b1b647bf741a485728430010d1a7b/c.html

Anyone looking at H2 for ANYTHING knows the future is China, not the United States of Arrogant Warmongers - where Donald Dump has decided that he wants Coal and hates hydrogen.

China set to smash national hydrogen targets, solidifying lead in global electrolyzer market

2 replies

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Chinese scientists set new efficiency record for solar-to-hydrogen conversion (Original Post) Caribbeans Monday OP

Hmmmm... OKIsItJustMe Monday #1

It is absurd for anyone to claim to object to coal while praising hydrogen in China. NNadir Monday #2

OKIsItJustMe

(21,317 posts)

1. Hmmmm...

Reply to Caribbeans (Original post)

Mon Jun 23, 2025, 09:26 PM

Monday

https://english.news.cn/20250617/364b1b647bf741a485728430010d1a7b/c.html

…

Validated in a fully solar-driven standalone system, the device achieved 5.1 percent STH efficiency, surpassing the 5 percent benchmark for conventional systems using silicon photocathodes with inorganic photoanodes. This marks the highest reported efficiency for such configurations, said Wang.

…

OK, I guess I’m not as impressed

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/hydrogen-panel-china-japan/5952/

This hydrogen panel destroys industry in China and Japan: It’s white and 1000 times more powerful
by D. García November 27, 2024 in Energy

…

Production capacity: Each panel has the capability of generating up to 250 liters of hydrogen per day if optimized.
Efficiency: The efficiency of the technology to convert sunlight into hydrogen gas is at its best of 15%. The team is aiming for a real-life efficiency of 12% and above.

…

NNadir

(36,059 posts)

2. It is absurd for anyone to claim to object to coal while praising hydrogen in China.

Reply to Caribbeans (Original post)

Mon Jun 23, 2025, 11:25 PM

Monday

No matter how many lies the fossil fuel industry puts out, no matter how many slick videos they push here and elsewhere, in China, hydrogen is overwhelmingly made from coal and other fossil fuels with exergy destruction.

Subsidizing Grid-Based Electrolytic Hydrogen Will Increase Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Coal Dominated Power Systems Liqun Peng, Yang Guo, Shangwei Liu, Gang He, and Denise L. Mauzerall Environmental Science & Technology 2024 58 (12), 5187-5195

The text is clear enough.

From the introductory text:

... Currently, nearly all hydrogen in China is either produced directly from fossil fuels (55% from coal gasification and 14% from steam methane reforming (SMR)) or as a byproduct of petroleum refining (28%), with only 1% coming from water electrolysis. (2) Producing 1 kg of coal- or SMR-based hydrogen emits roughly 19 and 10 kg of CO2, respectively. (3) In 2020, hydrogen production from fossil fuels in China emitted approximately 322Tg of CO2, equivalent to 25% of total CO2 emissions from industrial processes, a number expected to rise with increasing hydrogen demand. (4) Industrial processes include production of nonmetallic mineral products, chemical, and metal products, as well as production and consumption of halocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. (4)

.

The bold, italics and underlining is mine.

EST: Chinese Hydrogen Production Is Making Climate Change Worse.

It is also exceedingly stupid and frankly ignorant, to claim that a lab scale still low efficiency direct visible light to hydrogen scheme has anything to do with industrial practice. There are hundreds of "light to hydrogen" papers published each year, and yet after decades the main source of hydrogen is fossil fuels. The second largest use for hydrogen after ammonia manufacture is for petroleum refining.

Basically pushing hydrogen is an expression not only of contempt for science; it is a contempt for the environment as well.

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