BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 13. The production of green hydrogen could be increased worldwide, if electrolyzers market expands, Trend reports, citing International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
According to the Agency’s report, electrolysis of water using renewable electricity is a sustainable option for producing green hydrogen as an attractive low-carbon energy carrier.
“To meet the growing demand for hydrogen based on renewable energy sources, an extraordinary expansion of the electrolyzer market is necessary, associated with a significant increase in the production and implementation of electrolyzers. Rapid reduction of the costs of electrolysis systems is essential, and technological innovation is crucial to achieve this goal,” IRENA said.
As research said, investment costs for electrolysis plants can be reduced by 40 percent in the short term, and by 80 percent - in the long term, if key strategies, such as improving the design and construction of electrolyzers, economies of scale, replacing scarce materials with rich metals, increasing the efficiency and flexibility of operations, are implemented.
According to IRENA, there some tendencies observed in the electrolyzers industry. First of all, a lot of attention is paid to the search for optimal operating conditions and the design of the electrolyzer to increase the efficiency of green hydrogen production.
A sharp increase in the number of patents related to electrocatalysts made of base metals also indicates that research and development is moving towards finding new solutions and aimed at mitigating the effects of a shortage of materials, the report said.
“In searching for a simultaneous increase in technological performance and durability, patenting activity is moving towards polymer (organic) separator membranes. Generally speaking, about 5 percent of the patent filings make explicit reference to increased durability or a longer service life,” IRENA added.
The great momentum seen in electrolyzers is expected to continue and drive future innovation. In fact, the growing trend of filing patent applications signals that there will soon be more of them, which will satisfy the urgent need for new solutions to reduce the cost of electrolyzers in parallel with increasing technological efficiency and production capacity.
“Innovation in the field of electrolyzers is a widely recognized strategy for making the production of hydrogen cost-competitive with other technologies and as green as possible, thus helping to tackle challenges such as decarbonization and accelerating energy transition,” IRENA concluded.
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