A researcher in electrochemistry for energy and the environment has just been awarded a four-year project by the National Research Foundation to the value of R4,2 million.
Prof Cobus Kriek is the leader of the electrochemistry for energy and environment group within the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science’s research focus area for Chemical Resource Beneficiation.
This project, in collaboration with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, will run from 2019 until the end of 2022.
Prof Kriek says the team will investigate iron doped nickel oxide as an electrocatalyst for the electrolytic splitting of water to produce hydrogen as a clean energy store.
This work falls under the programme titled “South Africa – Norway Co-operation on Ocean Research, including blue economy, climate change, the environment and sustainable energy” (SANOCEAN).
“Climate change, and the effects thereof, is becoming increasingly prevalent, which has resulted in an urgency to develop clean and sustainable energy technologies. An area of great interest is the use of renewable energy, for example electricity produced from the sun and wind, to power a water electrolyser that splits water into its components, hydrogen and oxygen.”
He says hydrogen has one of the highest energy density values per mass, making it an ideal energy store. If water can be effectively and economically split, using energy from the sun or wind to produce hydrogen, then solar or wind energy can be effectively captured and stored in the form of hydrogen gas.
“Releasing the stored energy in hydrogen through either combustion or a fuel cell, whereby hydrogen and oxygen from the air combine to produce electricity, releases water back into the environment, which represents a clean and renewable energy cycle.
“The hurdle to be overcome in this process is to reduce the energy required to electrolytically split water, which allows for more solar or wind energy to be stored in the form of hydrogen gas.”
The project awarded to Prof Kriek’s research group, in collaboration with NTNU in Norway, seeks to shed light on the increased activity afforded nickel oxide (to act as catalyst in splitting water) through “doping” (impregnating) it with trace amounts of iron.
He says this project will also serve to establish a long-term collaborative effort between NWU and NTNU, with students from NWU spending a number of months each year in the laboratories of NTNU.
He has accepted an invitation from NTNU to present an invited lecture at the second International Conference on Electrolysis in Loen, Norway in June 2019. At this conference, international researchers meet to present and discuss their work on the splitting of water.
Prof Cobus Kriek
