A team of Canadian researchers may have unlocked a major advance in clean energy — one that could make it far easier and far cheaper to convert pollution into valuable fuels and chemicals.
Per Tech Xplore, their breakthrough centers on a small but critical component inside electrolyzers, the machines that use electricity to turn carbon emissions into usable products. According to findings published in Nature Energy, this innovation could remove a major barrier that has held the technology back for years.
Electrolyzers can produce clean hydrogen from water and convert carbon dioxide into useful products such as ethylene, which is used to make plastics, textiles, and many industrial materials. But today's electrolyzers lose a lot of energy because of the membranes that sit between their two active layers. These membranes are designed to only allow certain ions to pass through, but in practice they slow ion movement and increase energy loss. As a result, many systems get stuck at energy efficiencies below 40%.
The University of Toronto team wondered whether a charge-selective membrane was truly necessary. Instead, it tested an uncharged porous separator — a thin material full of tiny holes. Because it isn't selective, it lets ions move much more freely. That simple change reduced electrical resistance, lowered the voltage needed to run the system, and increased efficiency to 51%, the highest reported for this type of carbon-conversion system.
Even better, the device ran stably for 250 hours, showing it has potential for long-term, real-world use.
A more efficient electrolyzer could make clean hydrogen and recycled carbon products much cheaper. That's a win for companies, cities, and households. Using less electricity lowers operating costs while reducing the pollution that comes from traditional, dirtier forms of energy.
Cleaner production methods can also improve public health by reducing air pollutants linked to respiratory problems. This breakthrough shows how scientific innovation can support a healthier and more affordable energy future.
The team built on older research but changed one key assumption. Instead of blocking certain ions, it focused only on blocking gas crossover. Because carbon monoxide and ethylene move slower in water than hydrogen, the scientists realized they could use a thinner, more porous separator without causing performance issues. These materials are also inexpensive, sturdy, and easier to assemble than traditional membranes — all major advantages when designing large commercial systems.
The researchers are now applying the same approach to CO2-reduction technologies and scaling up the system for industrial use.
While this technology won't show up in home appliances any time soon, it could make its way into commercial-scale clean fuel plants in the next several years.
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Lower energy bills 💸 With breakthroughs such as this new electrolyzer architecture — and an expanding toolkit of ways for everyday people to cut costs and reduce pollution — the future of clean energy looks brighter than ever.
"We're already extending our approach to CO2 reduction and related electrosynthetic pathways," first author Rui Kai Miao said. "We are also working on scaling these separator-based electrolyzers. On scale-up, these separators offer very practical advantages. Unlike many charge-selective membranes that require careful hydration and can be mechanically fragile, the separators can be assembled dry or wet, are structurally strong, and simplify stack assembly.
"That's helping us reduce assembly failures as we move to larger active areas and multi-cell stacks, while we push for longer-duration operation and integration with intermittent renewable power."
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