DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

A team at the University of Sydney has created a new technology to produce green hydrogen using particles of liquid gallium suspended in water and exposed to sunlight or artificial light. The gallium, a metal with a low melting point, reacts at its surface when exposed to light, gradually oxidizes and releases hydrogen while gallium oxyhydroxide is formed.

The major advantage of this system is that it works with both freshwater and seawater, avoiding the high cost of water purification faced by many current electrolysis technologies. In addition, the gallium oxyhydroxide produced can be reduced back to metallic gallium, allowing the metal to be reused in a “circular” chemical cycle. In initial laboratory tests, the method reached a maximum efficiency of 12.9%, a figure considered highly competitive for a proof of concept.

The university has already filed a patent application, and the team is now working on improving performance and designing a mid-scale reactor, with a view to future commercialization to boost the green hydrogen economy.

Source: https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2026/02/10/scientists-use-sunlight-and-liquid-metal-to-produce-clean-hydrog.html