Professor & Principal Investigator
Steam electrolysis has the advantage of higher energy efficiency compared to liquid water electrolysis. By using proton-conducting solid electrolytes, it can be operated at lower temperatures (below 600°C) than conventional methods based on solid oxide cells.
Utilizing proton-conducting oxides, it offers advantages such as reduced operating temperature and improved fuel utilization compared to conventional solid oxide fuel cells using oxide ion-conducting electrolytes such as YSZ.
Leveraging the lower operating temperature compared to conventional solid oxide cells and the characteristic of conducting species being ionized hydrogen, research is conducted on hydrogen production via steam electrolysis, fuel cells, membrane reactors and so on.
Water electrolysis, practically the only method to produce hydrogen by splitting stable water energetically, is studied in this research aiming to conserve high-grade electrical energy by supplementing a portion of the energy required for electrolysis with heat.
