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We have split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with nearly 100 per cent efficiency What % efficiency does "nearly 100% efficiency" mean in this contex

• phkahler 4y ago
  Seems like a good first step in desalination.
  • pixl97 4y ago
    Seems more like a way to increase salination. Instead to me it sounds like a way to take solar and convert it into a hydrogen storage battery.
    • gadflyinyoureye 4y ago
      That is exactly what it does. This is a good thing. We can convert it into a fuel that can power vehicles and infrastructure. Yes, hydrogen is a scary element. Yes, hydrogen is hard to store. However, with water it is an abundant fuel source that should allow competition in conveyance and grid scale storage.
• tech2 4y ago
  I'd wondered the same, but even with that question hanging I think the outcome of being able to electrolyse sea water directly was interesting.
• andrewflnr 4y ago
  I read it as with exactly the same number of joules of electricity as the enthalpy of formation of the water they electrolyze (not sure about the terminology, it's been a while since I took chemistry). Basically the electricity supplies exactly enough energy to pop off the hydrogens.
• marcosdumay 4y ago
  The paper is being widely discussed everywhere. I didn't get it (paywalled), but it seems the high efficiency claim means that way more than 95% of the electrical current goes into electrolysis. Overall, the most important thing is that this thing is cheap. Everything else you read around just means it's equal or not much worse than the usual electrodes.