Efficient photovoltaic-driven clean hydrogen production

R&D Focus Areas:
Electrolysis, Photochemical and photocatalytic processes, Advanced manufacturing

Lead Organisation:
The University of Sydney

Partners:
University of New South Wales
California Institute of Technology (United States)

Status:
Active

Start date:
May 2020

Completion date:
December 2023

Key contacts:
Professor Anita Ho-Baillie: anita.ho-baillie@sydney.edu.au

Funding:
AUD$437,000 – Australian Research Council

Project total cost:
AUD$900,000 – combined cash and in-kind contribution

Project summary description:
This project aims to develop a novel, low cost and high performance monolithic photovoltaic electrochemical (PV-EC) device for clean hydrogen production. This device tailors and integrates low cost and high-performance thin film and tandem photovoltaics achieving high solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency towards 20%.

Earth abundant and stable catalysts will be developed in this project to replace noble based catalysts, as well as novel architectures for electrical contacting, feed-through and catalyst integration in PV-EC devices. These innovations offer high performance and the potential for device costs 2 to 3 orders of magnitude lower than recent world record photoelectrochemical devices. While the original project plan is based on the development of water splitting for hydrogen production, new processes for hydrogen production other than water splitting has been developed and patented.

Related publications and key links:

  1. Hongjun Chen, et al, Anita W. Y. Ho-Baillie, Antonio Tricoli, Integrating Low-Cost Earth-Abundant Co-Catalysts with Encapsulated Perovskite Solar Cells for Efficient and Stable Overall Solar Water Splitting, https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202008245

Patent Applications:

  1. Solar-driven production of clean hydrogen, University of Sydney Ref. 2021-039, Provisional Patent AU2021903031
  2. Solar-driven co-production of hydrogen, University of Sydney CDIP Ref. 2021-111.
  3. Solar-driven clean hydrogen production, University of Sydney CDIP Ref. 2021-136, Provisional Patent AU 2022900923

Higher degree studies supported:
One higher degree student is supported.

 

Reviewed: September 2023