| The objective of the work was to conduct water electrolysis at room temperature with reduced energy costs for hydrogen production. The electrochemical gasification of carbons consumes only 9.6 kcal/mol H2O compared to 56.7 kcal/molH 2O for conventional water electrolysis. In this work, carbon-assisted hydrogen production and the reaction energetics/kinetics at applied potentials |E0| between 0.1 and 1.8 V are studied. The carbon promoted water electrolysis could be performed at applied potentials as low as |E0|=0.21 V as opposed to conventional water electrolysis which requires |E0|>1.25 V. The study reveals that the H2 produced per W h is higher at the lower voltages, but longer times are required to produce the same amount of H2. The following parameters were considered for evaluating the process: time taken, potential applied, current required and amount of carbon to be added. Based on such an evaluation, practical parameters of |E0| &sime 0.5 V and carbon concentration (0.08 g/cm3) are suggested. |
