Hyping direct seawater electrolysis hinders electrolyzer development

Abstract

Jan Niklas Hausmann finished his PhD in 2022 and is currently a postdoc at the CatLab of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in the group of Prashanth W. Menezes. He is a trained inorganic chemist, and his research focuses on the development of electrocatalysts and structure-activity relations for conventional and hybrid water splitting. Furthermore, he is interested in the techno-economics of these electrocatalytic processes and has recently published an article titled “Is direct seawater splitting economically meaningful?”

Lea R. Winter is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. She received a PhD in chemical engineering from Columbia University in 2020. She obtained postdoctoral training as a Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale in 2020–2022. Her research focuses on electrified processes at the food, energy, water, and climate nexus, including development of sustainable and circularized processes for conversion of CO₂ to chemicals and fuels, green nitrogen fixation to fertilizers and nitrogen-based fuels, and transformation of contaminants in wastewater into useful products while recovering fit-for-purpose water.

M.A. Khan is an assistant professor in the Chemical and Materials Engineering department at the University of Alberta. His research aims to contribute to a sustainable future through the development of innovative technologies that support zero-emission energy carriers like hydrogen and electricity. Dr. Khan’s approach integrates techno-economic analysis and life cycle analysis to model energy systems and net-zero transition pathways. His current contributions include advancements in the production of sustainable fuels and chemicals, impacting areas such as steel production and heavy-duty transportation. He has authored/coauthored 46 scientific articles and 4 government reports and has 6 granted US patents.

Menachem Elimelech is the Sterling Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. His research interests include emerging membrane-based technologies at the water-energy nexus, materials for next-generation desalination and water purification membranes, and environmental applications of nanomaterials. Professor Elimelech is a Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters) Highly Cited Researcher. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Md Golam Kibria is an associate professor at the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary. He is the cofounder and CTO of several spin-off companies from the University of Calgary, including O-Two Carbon Inc., CarboMat Inc., and NetZero Hub Inc. Kibria has extensive expertise in electrochemical systems, including water electrolysis and CO₂ electrolysis as well as electrochemical oxidation reactions. Furthermore, he is interested in process modeling and system-level analysis, including techno-economic and life cycle analysis, and has recently published an article titled “Seawater electrolysis for hydrogen production: A solution looking for a problem?”

Tobias Sontheimer heads the Strategy Department for Energy and Information at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and has been helping to shape the transformation of the energy sector for more than 15 years. In his current role, he is responsible for research and development for green hydrogen technologies and sustainable aviation fuels. From 2014 to 2020, he was chief research manager for the Helmholtz Association’s national energy R&D portfolio. Sontheimer studied physics at RWTH Aachen University and Harvard University and completed his doctorate in the field of renewable energy technologies as a scholarship holder of SCHOTT AG.

Prashanth W. Menezes is head of the Materials Chemistry Group for Thin-Film Catalysis at the CatLab of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and leads the Inorganic Materials Group at Technische Universität Berlin. He received his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, after which he moved to Technische Universität München and then to Technische Universität Berlin to work on energy catalysis. His research focuses on the design, development, and dynamic structural understanding of novel functional precatalysts in heterogeneous catalysis, especially for applications in redox oxygen catalysis, (photo)electrocatalytic water splitting, and electrochemical redox reactions.