Develops panels that borrow solar electricity to generate hydrogen from moisture in the air.

The first "hydrogen solar panel" ever created merges the two most powerful, clean and renewable sources and is ready for real-world trials.

A team of bioscience engineers from the University of Leuven in Belgium – Johan Martens Tom Bosserez, Jan Rongé and Christos Trompoukis – has been working for over a decade on Solhyd, an idealistic plan to develop a panel that can create hydrogen from moisture in the air and sunlight.

Integrated with a standard photovoltaic (PV) solar panel that provides green electricity, a Solhyd panel has a specialized layer that splits water molecules absorbed from the air to produce green hydrogen. Designed for easy integration with current solar systems, these hydrogen panels are compatible with most commercial PV modules.

The team's technology currently produces 250 liters of hydrogen per day and can convert sunlight and water vapor from the air directly into hydrogen gas with an efficiency of 15%.

"Sunlight is part of the picture of course, and our panel does look like a solar panel but we prefer to call it a hydrogen panel," the researchers reported. "Even desert air has enough water vapor in it, so you can apply this process anywhere."

While its precise construction is still under wraps pending commercialization, the unique component of this system is the proprietary membrane, which collects and focuses water vapor into the conversion cell. The electricity generated from the top layer of the solar panel is used to energize the catalysts, which in turn break down the extracted air and water molecules. The cell only contains inexpensive, abundant materials, and the use of precious metals is unnecessary.

"Our system produces hydrogen gas in a carbon-neutral way: we take water vapor out of the air, use it to produce energy, and at the end of the cycle it's water vapor again," the team added. This process occurs independently of liquid water, operating as a stand-alone system for hydrogen generation without the need for a power grid.

This form of hydrogen production is far cheaper and more efficient than producing electricity through solar cells and then running it through a grid to an additional and separate catalyst-water construction for electrolysis.

A single module can purportedly generate about six kilograms (13 pounds) of hydrogen per year in a place like the often-overcast northwestern European climate – production may go up to 12 kg (26 lb) per module per year, especially in sunny areas. However, the annual hydrogen yield with Solhyd panels installed on a 1,000-square-meter roof would range from two to four tons.

The panels will be further tested on a small scale over two years to detect and fix any remaining flaws and develop a solid commercial product. The efficiency of the technology to convert sunlight into hydrogen gas has been about 15% during testing and the team is aiming for a commercial efficiency of 12% or better.

The Solhyd team is gearing up to spend the next couple of years focusing on small-scale development. By working out all the kinks along the way, Professor Martens and his team hope to deliver a top-notch commercial product ready for use in agricultural settings, retail to transport and remote communities.

The latest hydrogen panel prototype is being tested in everyday living conditions by Leen Peeters, a 41-year-old entrepreneur and Leuven PhD. While not quite off-grid, her home is dedicated to generating and storing its own power and will now also be equipped with twenty of the Solhyd team's panels.

One of the aims here is to find out how weather conditions influence the panels. If this experiment, which is funded by VLAIO (a government agency charged with implementing the economic and enterprise policy in Flanders, Belgium), turns out well, a further 39 family homes in that neighborhood can be fitted with the panels, the next step in developing the tech for mass commercial production.