Thread: Temperature and Electrolysis

I was reading a Wikipedia article on High Temperature Electrolysis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-te...e_electrolysis) and it said:

and because the electrolysis reaction is more efficient at higher temperatures.

What does it mean here? Is it that more hydrogen/oxygen will be outputted in a given time? Or do they mean that less energy will be consumed in producing the same amount of hydrogen compared with traditional electrolysis?

It means that it will take less electrical energy to produce a given amount of hydrogen as compared to traditional electrolysis. The total energy used will be the same, but if you're at high temperature some of the energy can come from heat (rather than electricity).

Thanks!

Originally Posted by jonc

I was reading a Wikipedia article on High Temperature Electrolysis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-te...e_electrolysis) and it said:

and because the electrolysis reaction is more efficient at higher temperatures.

What does it mean here? Is it that more hydrogen/oxygen will be outputted in a given time? Or do they mean that less energy will be consumed in producing the same amount of hydrogen compared with traditional electrolysis?

REPLY: I am not pretending to be any sort of expert regarding your question: but is it not a well established principal of physics and chemistry that the more energy any given system has the more rapidly all chemical reactions will take place ? Of course this does not include the extremes as in plasma physics and high temperatures. It also crosses my mind that the same can be said of the opposite extreme,extreme cold. Very strange things occur at both extremes. I am not helping you much, asking more questions or only questions and no answers. Well, look at it this way: I am adding perhaps to the interest in your posting. I do not know, ...Dr.Syntax