• nexusband@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 years ago

      That is incorrect, because salt water electrolysis is a thing - actually so much more efficient even, that they salt fresh water because it takes less energy. Not only that - the plant which I indirectly work for uses grey water. You know, that stuff that you flush down the drain?

      • reattach@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 years ago

        Which is great, but I’m sure your plant deionizes the water before using it in the electrolyzers, right? So the water is still being purified, just not by a public water plant.

    • frezik@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 years ago

      You need electrolytes (salt) to electrolyze water. Might as well use sea water.

      There are plenty of other problems with hydrogen energy, though.

      • reattach@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 years ago

        This is not correct. All commercial electrolyzers need very pure water as a feed to the system. PEM and SOEC electrolyzers use the ultrapure (industry term) water directly, while alkaline electrolyzers combine it with potassium hydroxide. Using sea water will very quickly result in non-functional equipment.

    • LostXOR@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 years ago

      I wouldn’t be too concerned about that. Annual hydrogen production is around 120 billion kg per year, which corresponds to about 1.08 trillion liters of water. We use about 4 quadrillion liters of fresh water total each year.