Alkaline Seawater Electrolysis at Industrial Level: Recent Progress and Perspective

Industrial hydrogen generation through water splitting, powered by renewable energy such as solar, wind and marine, paves a potential way for energy and environment sustainability. However, state-of-the-art electrolysis using high purity water as hydrogen source at an industrial level would bring about crisis of freshwater resource. Seawater splitting provides a practical path to solve potable water shortage, but still faces great challenges for large-scale industrial operation. Here we summarize recent developments in seawater splitting, covering general mechanisms, design criteria for electrodes, and industrial electrolyzer for direct seawater splitting. Multi-objective optimization methods to address the key challenges of active sites, reaction selectivity, corrosion resistance, and mass transfer ability will be discussed. The recent development in seawater electrolyzer and acquaint efficient strategies to design direct devices for long-time operation are also highlighted. Finally, we provide our own perspective to future opportunities and challenges towards direct seawater electrolysis.