Equatic Unveils Oxygen-Selective Anodes, Unlocking Gigaton-Scale Carbon Removal and Green Hydrogen Generation With Seawater Electrolysis
With funding from ARPA-E, the U.S.-manufactured OSAs will make combined carbon removal and clean hydrogen production more scalable, sustainable, and economical than ever before
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carbon removal company, Equatic, today announces the U.S. manufacturing of oxygen-selective anodes (OSAs), a climate breakthrough that unlocks scalable hydrogen production using seawater electrolysis. Equatic co-founder and lead scientist, Dr. Xin Chen, developed OSAs at UCLA with funding support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The first manufacturing facility for new and refurbished anodes will be in San Diego, California.
“Traditional electrolysis has only been possible with pure water, an increasingly scarce global resource. Equatic’s OSAs eliminate the process’s dependence on pure water and it taps into the world’s most abundant water resource instead: the ocean,” said Dr. Doug Wicks, a program director at ARPA-E, a U.S. Department of Energy agency that funds early stage, potentially game-changing energy technologies. “Just as important, this U.S. discovery will be manufactured by a team of highly-skilled technicians in San Diego, fueling our domestic clean economy and creating ripple effects that will be felt worldwide.”
In 2021, Dr. Chen set out to create an ocean-based electrolysis carbon removal and hydrogen-production process that does not produce chlorine gas. Chlorine gas is a barrier to seawater electrolysis since it has harmful effects on the environment, human health, and it is difficult to safely manage at scale. In June 2022, Dr. Chen’s team at UCLA received an ARPA-E grant worth $3 million in funding over three years. During the first phase of research, the team developed electrodes with finely-architectured catalysts that do not react with the salt in seawater. As a result, the chlorine in the salt remains stable and safe, while hydrogen gas is generated and captured to be used as clean energy. This breakthrough also extends the life of anodes and makes them more recyclable. After three years, the anodes simply need a new coat of catalysts made from affordable, earth-abundant elements to make them as good as new, lasting for decades.
“This breakthrough is the crux of Equatic’s ability to scale to gigaton volumes and has global implications,” emphasized Edward Sanders, chief operating officer at Equatic. “Our method removes the largest barriers to participate in carbon removal and clean energy production, namely high cost and the availability of specific geological formations, such as underground aquifers, CO2 pipelines, or desalination plants. With OSAs in production, Equatic is ready to help coastal regions around the world play a critical role in reaching the planet’s climate goals.”
Equatic’s process combines electrolysis with direct air capture to provide two valuable products, creating a dual-revenue stream. Its clean hydrogen production will help subsidize the cost of carbon removal, quickly bringing it down to less than $100 per tonne before 2030.
The OSAs will be manufactured at a San Diego electroplating facility. Already staffed with a highly-specialized team fluent in producing coatings for critical components used by the electronic and medical device industries, the facility will produce 4,000 pieces annually and is expected to run at full capacity by the end of 2024. As manufacturing scales up, the facility will expand and create training and job opportunities throughout Southern California.
Equatic will incorporate OSAs into Equatic-1, the upcoming demonstration-scale plant in Singapore and the first commercial-scale plant in Quebec—a facility capable of removing 109,500 tonnes of CO2 and generating 3,600 tonnes of green hydrogen per year as early as 2026. Ongoing research by Dr. Chen’s team will continually enhance performance while lowering the costs of OSAs and ensure a sustainable and domestic supply chain for manufacturing. T