Efficiency of Aluminium and Copper Coated Aluminium Electrode in Hydrogen Fuel Generation from Rain Water

Abstract

Water electrolysis is considered as the most capable and old technology for hydrogen fuel preparation. Electrolysis needs external electrical energy through electrodes to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. An efficient electrolysis requires suitable electrodes to minimize potential drop. In this study Aluminium and Copper Coated Aluminium were used as different combination of Anodes and Cathodes to find out more efficient electrodes combination. NaCl solution in rain water was taken as electrolyte. Rain water was taken to avoid ionic impedance of tap water and expenses of distilled water. In this study, the most efficient electrode combination was Copper Coated Aluminium (anode)-Aluminium (cathode) and gave the highest efficiency of hydrogen production to about 11% at normal temperature for very low concentration of NaCl (0.051 M) which increased with temperature, up to 29% upon rising of temp to 60˚C. It was showed that higher concentration of electrolyte would surge the efficiency significantly. If the supplied heat could be provided from any waste heat sources then this study would be more efficient. However, current research evaluated the technical feasibility of this electrode combination for producing hydrogen with electrolysis of rain water utilizing electricity and modified electrodes.