Hydrogen Production

Conduct electricity.

Yep. Conduct electricity.

John: 11, 35.

pure deionized water is used to cool electrical equipment.

Hi vicini.

How does the deionized water cooling equipment statement apply to this question?

Is there a need for cooling the electrical equipment used in Hydrogen production process in your experience?

clarification, please.

milo

to reinforce the fact that it takes an electrolyte to conduct electricity, pure water WILL NOT conduct electricity. In huge operations there is a lot of heat generated in the curcuits and we water cool these curcuits with no fear of shorting out.

Guest,

Water purity is often measured by its conductivity--the less conductive (i.e. the higher its resistance), the more pure it is. Distilled water is fairly pure and therefore has very low conductivity. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) is one of many chemicals which dissolves readily into water and forms K⁺ and OH^- ions (over 99% is in the dissociated ions). This provides the means for electricity to be carried through the water, with the voltage high enough to overcome the ionizing potentials of H⁺ or OH^-. At the negative electrode, the H⁺ gains electrons (e^-) to form hydrogen (2H⁺ + 2e^- => H₂); similarly at the positive electrode, OH^- gives up electrons to form H⁺ and oxygen (2OH^- => O₂ + 2H⁺ +4e^-). With direct current, the hydrogen gas can be captured and collected at the negative electrode and the oxygen gas can be captured and collected at the positive electrode. If you were to use alternating current, each electrode would collect both gases together as highly explosive mixtures.

As was said so succinctly by others, the KOH electrolyte is present to allow the current to flow through the water and permit the above reactions to take place on the two electrodes.

Regards--JMM