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What is the energy efficiency of producing hydrogen by electrolysis of water?

hydrogen energy
Luca Pacioli asked:


Assume the produced energy X is the total combustion of N units of hydrogen and Y is the amount of electrical energy to produce those N units. What is X/Y?

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Chemistry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “What is the energy efficiency of producing hydrogen by electrolysis of water?”

  1. veronica a Says:
    August 8th, 2008 at 2:57 am

    Electrolysis is not an efficient way to produce water. (If it was the hydrogen propulsed car would be a reality.) Y is greater than X, so your answer is less than one.

  2. rhsaunders Says:
    August 8th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    Not very good. It depends on the details of the process; a higher voltage than thermodynamically necessary is needed to produce adequate current flow. You might get 75% on a good day.