SYDNEY, July 17 (Xinhua) — An Australian-led study has found a potential solution for producing green hydrogen at scale, removing a key barrier to global decarbonization.
Australia’s Monash University-led researchers announced on Thursday progress toward overcoming a major barrier to sustainable green hydrogen production: the limited and costly supply of iridium, a key material in today’s most advanced hydrogen production technology.
The study shows that cobalt, which is much more abundant and affordable than iridium, could replace it in key green hydrogen production devices, helping enable large-scale, sustainable hydrogen generation, according to a statement from Monash University.
“Cobalt is much cheaper than iridium, but the challenge has always been making cobalt-based catalysts stable enough to survive the harsh conditions inside these electrolysers,” said Darcy Simondson, study contributor Monash PhD alumnus.
Earlier efforts to use cobalt catalysts were hindered by poor stability, which has been addressed by the new study, conducted over more than three years by the Monash team with partners in Germany, the United States and Britain, using advanced spectroscopic, electrochemical, and computational methods.
Researchers found that catalytic activity and degradation in cobalt anodes happen separately, allowing for improved performance without losing stability, said the study published in London-based Nature Energy.
The findings suggest that robust cobalt catalysts could enable affordable, large-scale hydrogen production and help improve other catalyst technologies. ■