A new experimental project combining thermal-coupled seawater hydrogen production with strategic marine-element extraction has been announced in Rizhao, Shandong Province, China.

The project, developed by Shandong Rizhao Dawang Clean Energy Co., Ltd., has a total investment of CNY 10 million (approximately $1.4 million), including CNY 100,000 allocated to environmental protection.

Project Overview

The project is located north of Shugang Avenue and west of the southern gate of Shandong Iron and Steel Group in Lanshan District, Rizhao. It is a new-build experimental project that will use an existing factory building to establish an experimental platform covering approximately 300 square meters.

The facility will conduct experimental research on seawater desalination, hydrogen production through water electrolysis, thermal-energy coupling and the extraction of strategic marine elements.

The project is not intended for industrial production or commercial product output and is not classified as a pilot-scale project. Through systematic testing, the project will examine how different experimental variables and operating conditions affect seawater desalination, hydrogen output and treated-water quality.

The research will be used to determine optimal process parameters and operating mechanisms and to establish stable equipment operating parameters, providing a theoretical and technical basis for the future development of pilot-scale facilities and engineering applications for marine strategic-resource utilisation.

The facility is scheduled to operate for 504 hours per year, with the equipment shut down and maintained during the remainder of the year. The experimental programme is designed to run for five years. Once the experiments are completed, the equipment will be disposed of through the company's asset disposal procedures.

Hydrogen Production System

The project will use an alkaline water electrolysis process to produce hydrogen, with a designed production capacity of 20 Nm³/h and annual hydrogen output of approximately 10,000 Nm³.

The project will deploy one alkaline hydrogen production system using a 30% potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution as the electrolyte.

Freshwater produced by the seawater screening and desalination system will be fed into the electrolyser to generate hydrogen and oxygen. The alkaline solution will then enter a gas-liquid separation system before flowing into the thermal-coupling system. It will subsequently be concentrated in a flash tank and recycled, with periodic make-up dosing based on density measurements.

Compiled from：Rizhao Lanshan District official EIA announcement