Hydrogen, a clean and renewable energy source, is a promising substitute for fossil fuels. Electricity-driven water electrolysis is an attractive pathway for clean hydrogen production. Accordingly, the development of electrolysis cells has drawn researchers’ attention to capital costs related to noble catalyst reduction and membrane degradation by the contaminations. In the literature, polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) have been studied on single cations contamination. In this study, we investigated the performance of a PEM on monovalent and divalent cation contamination by feed water. Artificial river water, called soft water, was used to analyze the effect of impurities on the PEM. The results demonstrated that the operating voltage drastically increased and induced cell failure with increasing Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ concentrations; however, it did not increase for Na⁺ and K⁺ after increase in voltage. Therefore, divalent cations have a stronger affinity than monovalent cations to degrade PEM and should be effectively excluded from the feed water.

Power to gas (P2G) process chains have tremendous potential to enhance energy systems because of the capability of solar energy to convert solar radiation into electrical energy as well as the increasing use of specific gases as a means to store the resulting energy. Utilizing sunlight, photovoltaic systems are capable of producing useful gases such as hydrogen (H₂) and methane (CH₄). These gases are utilized in gas grids, transportation, and heavy industry. In employing a sunlight-derived gas, H₂ production, by water disbanding, needs to be cost-effective with tremendous adaptability. New powerful solar to gas conversion system modules have been successfully carried out in the University of Miyazaki, Japan. These systems contain DC/DC converters and electrolyzer sets linked in parallel with efficient three concentrator photovoltaics (CPV). The performance of the solar to methane conversion process and power consumption analysis will be the focus of the current research. Efficiencies of 97.6% of CO₂ to CH₄ conversion and 13.8% for solar to methane on a clear sunny day were obtained by utilizing highly efficient CPV modules connected with multiple converters, electrochemical cells, and reactors fixed with Ni-based catalysts.

A sustainable, renewable energy source is highly desirable for a zero-carbon-emission society. A powerful energy supply that can replace the fossil fuel sector is required. Effective energy transformation into synthetic chemical energy has become a promising alternative energy production method that can conveniently store energy produced by renewable sources. Solar-to-gas conversion has caught the attention of researchers to provide green hydrogen for vehicles and synthetic natural methane for the current gas-grid infrastructure. Such systems are run on solar energy converted into storable chemical energy such as hydrogen and methane. In this study, a new method was developed by independently setting the reactor temperatures and evaluating the methane concentration and methanation power consumption. Subsequently, a high methane concentration (97.89%) and lower power consumption of the methanation system (0.148 kW) were observed at low temperatures (180 °C, 260 °C).