OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba Corporation, a leader of the development of technologies for the low carbon hydrogen economy, today unveiled Japan’s largest alkaline water electrolysis hydrogen production system*1, pointing the way to low cost, high volume production of hydrogen for various applications. The system can produce approximately 100Nm3/h of hydrogen in an hour, an amount sufficient for two vehicles powered by fuel cells.

Alkaline water electrolysis uses an alkaline solution as the electrolyte in the hydrogen producing chemical reaction, removing the need for expensive precious metals in the system’s electrodes. Enlarging the electrodes and output capacity is cheaper than for other systems that do require precious metals, making alkaline water electrolysis suitable for high capacity systems.

Toshiba’s new system also offers other advantages allowing use in cold regions; while the technologies optimizes the energy efficiency of the overall system and the purity of the hydrogen it produces.

Toshiba has already demonstrated and tested a smaller version of the system as part of the “Regional Cooperation and Low-Carbon Hydrogen Technology Demonstration Project” funded by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment. Installed in the Shoro Dam in Shiranuka-cho, Shiranuka-gun, Hokkaido, the system produces approximately 35Nm3/h of hydrogen for a small community.

Alongside its work on the alkaline electrolysis system, Toshiba is also promoting other contributions to achieving a hydrogen economy. With the support of Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), it has developed a hydrogen production system with a next generation solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC), which is highly suited to high temperature, low power hydrogen production, and is investigating optimization according to application.