Some Considerations on the Electrolysis of Water from Sodium Hydroxide Solutions

The unusually high solubilities and thermal coefficients of solubility of the alkali metal hydroxides make them attractive candidates for high-temperature electrolytic processes to produce high-pressure hydrogen. The feasibility of using strong sodium hydroxide (to keep down the saturation pressure of the condensed phase) electrolysis (to facilitate the separation of the hydrogen from oxygen over a liquid phase) at high temperatures (to increase the energy efficiency by substitution of process heat for electric power) and to increase the production rate in a given cell (by increasing the specific conductance of the working fluid) is explored and discussed. Suggestions are made for future research.