A photovoltaic-electrolysis system with high solar-to-hydrogen efficiency under practical current densities
The photovoltaic-alkaline water (PV-AW) electrolysis system offers an appealing approach for large-scale green hydrogen generation. However, current PV-AW systems suffer from low solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiencies (e.g., <20%) at practical current densities (e.g., >100 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>), rendering the produced H<sub>2</sub> not economical. Here, we designed and developed a highly efficient PV-AW system that mainly consists of a customized, state-of-the-art AW electrolyzer and concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) receiver. The highly efficient anodic oxygen evolving catalyst, consisting of an iron oxide/nickel (oxy)hydroxide (Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>-NiO<i><sub>x</sub></i>H<i><sub>y</sub></i>) composite, enables the customized AW electrolyzer with unprecedented catalytic performance (e.g., 1 A cm<sup>-2</sup> at 1.8 V and 0.37 kgH<sub>2</sub>/m<sup>-2</sup> hour<sup>-1</sup> at 48 kWh/kgH<sub>2</sub>). Benefiting from the superior water electrolysis performance, the integrated CPV-AW electrolyzer system reaches a very high STH efficiency of up to 29.1% (refer to 30.3% if the lead resistance losses are excluded) at large current densities, surpassing all previously reported PV-electrolysis systems.
Authors
- Ivan Perez‐Würfl
- Soshan Cheong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6133-0829)
- Mark Keevers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8557-3689)
- Jian Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-9142)
- Qingran Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9939-8383)
- John Lasich
- Xunyu Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4802-5269)
- Priyank V. Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8203-7223)
- Lars Thomsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2735-3362)
- Rahman Daiyan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3543-3944)
- Rose Amal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9561-4918)
- Martin A. Green (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8860-396X)
- Gurpreet Kour
- Junjie Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8322-3397)
- Chao‐Lung Chiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6251-9276)
- Kuang‐Hsu Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7670-7948)
- Kristian Grayson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3278-0905)
- Yihao Shan
Institutions
- Tongji University (CN)
- Australian Synchrotron (AU)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse (CN)
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (TW)
- Shanghai Chengtou (China) (CN)
- Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-02-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ads0836
- Citations
- 23
- Primary Topic
- Advanced battery technologies research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 16.80