Producing hydrogen by electrolysis of water has a commercially attractive option to make it viable.
Research in electrochemistry and applied chemistry is needed to develop this option.
One cubic metre of water which is 1,000 litres weighs 1,000 kg.
After splitting the water molecules with electrical energy, the result includes about 110 kg of hydrogen gas.
If the target price for hydrogen so that customers want to buy it is, say, $2 per kg, then the revenue from each 1,000 litres of water is $220 from the sale of hydrogen gas.
Of the hydrogen atoms in the 1,000 litres of water, a small proportion are deuterium atoms. Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen that has one neutron in the nucleus of each atom in addition to the one proton that is present by itself in the vast majority of hydrogen atoms.
Only about 1 in every 6,400 hydrogen atoms are the isotope "deuterium".
There is about 33 mg of deuterium in 1,000 litres of water. This 33 mg of deuterium in each 1,000 litres of water is sufficient to make about 150 ml of heavy water (D2O) - which is water where the molecules contain two deuterium atoms in place of two hydrogen atoms (H2O).
The technology is straightforward. Heavy water (D2O) is separated from normal water by electrolysis, because the difference in mass between the two hydrogen isotopes translates into a slight difference in the speed at which the reaction proceeds. Water molecules containing two hydrogen atoms are preferentially split, leaving a greater proportion of molecules with one deuterium atom in the water remaining after prolonged periods of operating electrolyzers.
150 ml of deuterium have a retail value of about $730.
This is considerably more than the desired retail value of $220 for the 110 kg of hydrogen gas produced from each 1,000 litres of water. The total revenue is closer to $1,000 for these two products made from each 1,000 litres of water.
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Deuterium Oxide - Heavy Water |