Through the anodic oxidation of sodium sulfite aqueous solution to achieve energy-saving cathodic hydrogen production

Abstract Hydrogen energy is considered an important part of the future energy system. As a method of hydrogen production with high energy efficiency and low pollution, electrolysis of water has the problems of heavy dependence on fresh water and high cost. Therefore, seawater electrolysis technology for hydrogen production has been proposed. However, hydrogen production from seawater faces challenges such as high anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) potential and the introduction of Cl - side reactions. Replacing OER with SO 2 electrooxidation reaction (SO 2 OR) is an effective way to overcome the technical difficulties of hydrogen production from seawater. In this paper, the reactivity of SO 2 OR and OER in alkaline seawater was analyzed with Na 2 SO 3 as the source of SO 2 , and the effect of different concentrations of Na 2 SO 3 on seawater electrolysis was studied. It is found that the initial voltage of SO 2 OR is much lower than that of OER, and Cl - has less effect on SO 2 OR, which indicates that SO 2 OR has a good research prospect in the field of hybrid seawater hydrogen production.