Experimental study on hydrogen production from wastewater and activated carbon assisted water electrolysis

Abstract

Hydrogen has many advantages, such as high calorific value, low carbon, wide application, etc, which is an important strategic choice for China to achieve the dual carbon goal. It is still necessary to continue exploring new hydrogen production technologies with low cost, high efficiency and high purity. Carbon assisted water electrolysis for hydrogen production has attracted attention because it can effectively reduce electrolysis power consumption. In this paper, the electrolysis characteristics of hydrogen production by wastewater synergetic activated carbon assisted water electrolysis were experimentally studied, mainly discussing the advantages of the electrolysis characteristics of activated carbon compared with the existing carbon source coal, and the advantages of wastewater synergetic electrolysis. In this study, the control electrolysis experiment was carried out by controlling the single factor variables of carbon source type, wastewater type, temperature and iron catalyst. The electrochemical performance of each group of samples was determined by LSV, and the electrochemical kinetics was analyzed in combination with the experimental results. The experimental results showed that as an assisted carbon source, activated carbon was superior to Ximeng lignite and Shanxi Pingshuo bituminous coal. The current density of single activated carbon assisted electrolysis can be further improved by the cooperation of wastewater and activated carbon electrolysis. At the same time, the experiment also showed that temperature was an important factor affecting the auxiliary electrolysis, which need to be selected according to the actual situation. The electrochemical kinetics analysis further showed that the anodic reaction of electrolysis assisted by wastewater and activated carbon was easier to carry out, which could solve the problem of slow anodic reaction kinetics of electrolysis water.

Keywords

• carbon assisted water electrolysis
• hydrogen production
• activated carbon
• industrial wastewater
• wastewater utilization