Structural design for electrocatalytic water splitting to realize industrial-scale deployment: Strategies, advances, and perspectives

The green hydrogen generation powered by renewable electricity promises the potential decarbonization of the hard-to-abate sector and is essential for the fulfillment of the Paris Agreement that attempts to limit the global average temperature rise in the range of 1.5–2.0 ℃ above the pre-industrial level by the end of this century. Tremendous efforts have been devoted to the optimization of the electrocatalytic performance of the catalysts under industrial-relevant current densities via rational structure design,which induces a preferential electron distribution that favors the adsorption/desorption behavior of the key intermediates, thus accelerating the reaction kinetics. In this review, a brief introduction of the current energy status will be first presented to necessitate the importance of green hydrogen.Followed by the basic concepts and fundamental understanding of the reaction mechanisms, we present efficient strategies for the enhancement of the electrocatalytic performance of the catalysts to meet the rigorous requirement under industrial conditions and the in-depth understanding behind the reinforcement will be briefly discussed next. Then the recent advances regarding the rational design of electrocatalysts operating at an industrial scale will be summarized. Finally, the challenges and perspectives in this thriving field will be proposed from our point of view.

An industrial-scale annular centrifugal extractor for the TRPO process

Annular centrifugal extractors(ACEs) offer advantages including excellent hydraulic and mass-transfer performance, small hold-up volume, short residence time,and thus low solvent degradation, high nuclear criticality,easy start-up and shut-down, high compact structure.Therefore, ACEs have attracted increasing interest for future nuclear processing schemes, including the partitioning of high-level liquid waste(HLLW). Laboratoryscale and pilot-scale ACEs have been applied in demonstration tests of the trialkyl phosphine oxide(TRPO) process for HLLW partitioning. In this study, an industrialscale ACE(260 mm in rotor diameter) with magnetic coupling and a ‘‘hanging'' rotor structure was developed for the TRPO process. Moreover, a series of hydraulic and mass-transfer tests were carried out in the industrial-scale ACE. The maximum throughput can reach 10 m^3/h under suitable operation parameters when kerosene is used as the organic phase, and water is used as the aqueous phase. The influence of the total flowrate, the flow ratio(aqueous/organic, A/O), and the rotor speed on the liquid hold-up volume was determined. The extraction stage efficiency is higher than 98% under test parameters for extraction of Nd^(3+) and HNO_3, using 30% TRPO kerosene as theextractant from an HNO_3 solution containing Nd. All results show good performance of the industrial-scale ACE for the TRPO process.