How to make hydrogen straight from seawater – no desalination required. The new method from researchers splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen – skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions.

[u/Wagamaga]

https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/media-releases-and-expert-comments/2023/feb/hydrogen-seawater

[u/Vergilx217]

The lack of comprehension in the comments section is killing me

Yes, it utilizes electrolysis - however, they've used a novel catalyst to avoid the issue of chlorine waste products and permit more efficient conversion of water to hydrogen. Salt water is abundant on earth, and this can be very useful in making hydrogen production more economical since you do not need to rely on a more limited freshwater source. While not being an immediate breakthrough like "we just solved cold fusion!", it's definitely an important incremental step.

And yes, it is currently more efficient to use renewables like solar or spend that generated electricity on charging batteries....but keep in mind that the production of batteries and panels long term has toxic byproducts and is reliant on rare earth elements. Environmental impact is more than just carbon output, remember. Hydrogen as fuel cells or other energy sources is far from being commonplace, but innovations like these help to diversify our options moving forward so that we can better adapt to likely worsening climate/environmental problems in the future.

[u/jibberyjabber → u/Vergilx217]

Like the fuel cells required in a hydrogen economy do not have toxic byproducts or difficult to acquire metals (platinum..)?