MIT Study shows making hydrogen with soda cans and seawater is scalable and sustainable

[Caribbeans]

Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell Reports Sustainability (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.crsus.2025.100407

MIT Study shows making hydrogen with soda cans and seawater is scalable and sustainable

Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Tech | news.mit.edu | June 3, 2025

Hydrogen has the potential to be a climate-friendly fuel since it doesn't release carbon dioxide when used as an energy source. Currently, however, most methods for producing hydrogen involve fossil fuels, making hydrogen less of a "green" fuel over its entire life cycle.

A new process developed by MIT engineers could significantly shrink the carbon footprint associated with making hydrogen.

Last year, the team reported that they could produce hydrogen gas by combining seawater, recycled soda cans, and caffeine. The question then was whether the benchtop process could be applied at an industrial scale, and at what environmental cost.

Now, the researchers have carried out a "cradle-to-grave" life cycle assessment, taking into account every step in the process at an industrial scale. For instance, the team calculated the carbon emissions associated with acquiring and processing aluminum, reacting it with seawater to produce hydrogen, and transporting the fuel to gas stations, where drivers could tap into hydrogen tanks to power engines or fuel cell cars. They found that, from end to end, the new process could generate a fraction of the carbon emissions that is associated with conventional hydrogen production.

In a study published today in Cell Reports Sustainability, the team reports that for every kilogram of hydrogen produced, the process would generate 1.45 kilograms of carbon dioxide over its entire life cycle. In comparison, fossil-fuel-based processes emit 11 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilogram of hydrogen generated...more
https://news.mit.edu/2025/study-shows-making-hydrogen-soda-cans-seawater-scalable-sustainable-0603
also at: https://techxplore.com/news/2025-06-hydrogen-soda-cans-seawater-scalable.html

Game Changer #2577

Weed eater running on pure hydrogen made from Water without Electricity

Say tuned for many more GAME CHANGERS! It's an ENERGY REVOLUTION and NO ONE can stop it!

[rampartd]

1. byproduct aluminum oxide

al2o3 = ruby, emerald etc

[sl8]

4. Where do you see that?

I don't see Al2O3 mentioned in the article, other than the need to disrupt the preexisting Al2O3 coating on the aluminum before proceeding.

I see two byproducts mentioned:

Extensive research on AWRs has shown that the reaction products can include AlOOH (boehmite) or Al(OH)3 (bayerite or gibbsite).

Even if Al2O3 was a byproduct of this process, it's pretty unlikely it would be in the form of a gemstone. Your lawn chair and other metallic aluminum objects are covered in a thin layer of Al2O3, but no one would mistake them for sapphire.

[pansypoo53219]

2. electric is a boondoggle. hydrogen makes more sense.

[NNadir]

3. Shame on MIT for announcing a perpetual motion machine driven, like all hydrogen bullshit, by fossil fuels.

The IEA has a nice graphic on whence the energy (thermodynamically degraded electricity) to make aluminum comes:

Composition of electricity used in aluminum production compared with total electricity consumption, 2010 and 2021.

In 2021, 56.9% of the aluminum manufactured in the world was from electricity generated by burning coal and degrading its thermodynamics. 9.7% was made from from electricity generated by burning dangerous natural gas. 31.3% was made from hydroelectricity, with the result that fossil fuels were burned to make up the electricity that might have been used for other purposes.

All of these processes required exergy destruction that wastes energy.

I do understand that people attempting to market fossil fuels by rebranding them as "hydrogen" hold science in contempt, but the dissolution of aluminum in NaOH is a reaction kids can and do perform in high school chemistry classes. I'm sure I did that reaction 40 or 50 years ago. The electrolysis of seawater to make NaOH solutions also generates toxic chlorine gas, not that the fossil fuel industry, including the junk science free advertising squad here trying to claim that fossil fuels are really "green hydrogen" give neither a shit about the environment, nor health and safety.

The big, stupid, "hydrogen is green" lie is always a exergy destroying shell game, one that wastes energy, and has been wasting energy for 50 years, for no good reason.

[sl8]

5. Note that the low 1.45 kg CO2 figure is predicated on using recycled aluminum.

The CO2 figures when you account for aluminum refined from bauxite are about 70x higher.

Aluminum refining is extremely energy intensive, which is why producers of metallic aluminum products currently are happy to get all the recycled aluminum they can .

If this hydrogen production process was adopted on a wide scale, refining aluminum from ore would have to increase greatly, one way or another, releasing large amounts of CO2. There's only so much recycled aluminum to go around.