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Researchers have developed a new system to simultaneously separate salt water into breathable air and fuel, which is a major breakthrough for life here on Earth and even for future colonies on Mars.
Engineers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at the University of Washington in St. Louis have developed a patented brine electrolysis system that not only works without purified water, but works best because of the salinity of the inlet water. .
Salt water is not drinkable, and the standard method of separating oxygen from hydrogen in water, electrolysis, is notoriously cumbersome and expensive here on Earth, making it much more expensive. on the red planet.
On Mars, water that is not frozen is extremely salty, which lowers its freezing temperature but restricts hydrolysis options, so far.
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“Our Martian brine electrolyser radically changes the logistic calculation of missions to Mars and beyond”, says lead researcher Vijay Ramani. “This technology is also useful on Earth where it opens up the oceans as a viable source of oxygen and fuel.”
Ramani and his team operated their device, which uses custom-designed ruthenate pyrochlore anodes and platinum on carbon cathodes, in a simulated Martian atmosphere at -33 degrees Fahrenheit (-36 degrees Celsius) to produce at the both oxygen and hydrogen.
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express has discovered several groundwater ponds on the Red Planet that remain liquid due to the presence of significant amounts of magnesium perchlorate, a type of salt.
The magnesium salt prevents water from freezing and lowers the electrical resistance at the same time, which greatly facilitates the system as normal electrolysers use highly purified deionized water, which greatly increases the cost.
The in situ fabrication of water and fuel is the holy grail for any hope of manned missions to Mars and eventual colonization.
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NASA’s Perseverance rover, currently en route to the Red Planet, performs the Mars In Situ Oxygen Resource Use Experiment (MOXIE) which uses high temperature electrolysis to produce oxygen in using only carbon dioxide in the air.
However, the McKelvey School’s brine electrolysis system can produce 25 times more oxygen than MOXIE for the same power input, while also producing hydrogen which could be used as fuel.
The design and composition of the team device excludes the need to heat or purify water, thus reducing the input power required for system operation, simplifying the production of potable water and fuel simultaneously, making a possible Martian colony much more feasible.
The device also has a myriad of applications here on Earth, opening up the possibility of reusing brackish water used in oil and gas fracking, or revolutionizing the hydrolysis of seawater for the supply of oxygen to the sea. application in submarines or for ocean-going vessels exploring the ocean. ground.
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