Wastewater Utilization as a Source for Green Energy Generation Using Alkaline Water Splitting

It is imperative to switch from energy sources based
on fossil
fuels to environmentally friendly alternatives to meet sustainable
development goals. Green hydrogen has become a viable option for achieving
this goal. The necessity for extreme purity, limited water supplies,
and more expensive procedures are major obstacles to the hydrogen
economy. This work has investigated the use of transition metal-based
HfCoS/rGO electrocatalyst to produce green hydrogen from wastewater.
The suggested electrocatalyst has shown good performance in producing
hydrogen and oxygen. With excellent durability, it only takes 1.6,
1.64, and 1.73 V for deionized water (DI), tertiary effluent (TE),
and raw wastewater (RWW), respectively, to reach 10 mA/cm2 of current density. During the electrolysis process, contaminants
were effectively eliminated in addition to producing green energy.
The removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was 37.4% and 24.6% for
RWW and TE. Similarly, 39.2% and 27.8% total nitrogen (TN) was removed
for RWW and TE during wastewater electrolysis. A new window of opportunity
for establishing a sustainable hydrogen economy and water management
techniques is created by substituting low-grade water for high-purity
water.