China's "black technology" has amazed Western media with its maritime | seawater | technology
According to the Spanish newspaper Le Monde on June 11th, a group of Chinese researchers have built an offshore platform in a sea area in Fujian Province, China. It is a device that can convert seawater into hydrogen and oxygen.
According to the report, the leader of the project is scientist Xie Heping, who is the head of a team composed of researchers from Shenzhen University, Sichuan University, and China Eastern Electric Group Co., Ltd. Researchers refer to the offshore platform as a "floating farm", which is the first project to treat seawater without the need for desalination, and a successful step in seeking clean energy.
A recent report released by Chinese official media reported that the facility combines a hydrogen production system with a stable offshore wind power supply solution. By combining these two parts together, researchers have created a system that can electrolyze water into green hydrogen without producing pollutants around it.
Scientists around the world unanimously believe that hydrogen may be one of the most important clean fuels and energy storage media for the future, and to produce hydrogen, electricity is needed in a process called electrolysis to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen.
China Eastern Electric Group Co., Ltd. has installed a 10 MW offshore wind turbine for this floating electrolysis platform, enabling stable hydrogen production for up to 10 days.
During stable hydrogen production, researchers ensure that the system can produce hydrogen with a purity of at least 99.9%. Xie Heping introduced, "We have successfully integrated offshore renewable energy and achieved seawater electrolysis without the need for desalination. Our team plans to develop a more efficient hydrogen production system that can resist interference and help promote its industrialization with global enterprises."
According to reports, the scientist and his team presented this technological achievement in a paper published in the journal Nature in November last year. Xie Heping said, "Previous projects, such as those in the Netherlands and Germany, first required desalination of seawater and then the use of freshwater for hydrogen production. However, this method increased the complexity of the process: it required a large amount of desalination equipment and land resources, which not only increased the cost of hydrogen production but also increased the difficulty of project construction."
According to reports, due to extreme temperatures in summer and winter, China has become accustomed to dealing with fluctuations in energy supply. For many years, Chinese researchers have been studying how to obtain new renewable energy from the ocean. Wang Zhonglin, a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, called it the "blue dream". He clearly stated, "We are paying attention to the ocean in order to find solutions to problems that we cannot solve on land."
In a speech given to students, Wang Zhonglin stated that if ocean wave energy can be utilized, it will have greater advantages over several major renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy, as it is a sustainable supply.
Wang Zhonglin said that by using special generators, "the electricity generated in sea areas of the size of Shandong Province can meet the current total energy consumption of China.".
According to reports, the scientist said that his team is conducting ocean wave energy tests in the southern coastal areas of China. They designed a small generator that can generate electricity through friction caused by flowing water. This technology can provide a sustainable and low-cost source of electricity for the future.