On February 6, the National Radio 1 program “Zināmais nezināmajā” (Known in the Unknown) was devoted to hydrogen. Among the guests in the studio was the ISSP UL researcher from the Laboratory of Materials for Energy Harvesting and Storage, Pēteris Lesničenoks. Other guests represented Riga Technical University (RTU). In the program, scientists discussed their research and the newly developed innovative amphoterically decoupled electrolysis for hydrogen extraction carried out jointly by researchers from the RTU, the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Latvia and the ISSP UL. This discovery could simplify extraction, making it cheaper and less dangerous. Their work was recognized by the Latvian Academy of Sciences as one of the most significant achievements in Latvian science in 2022.
The program guests explained that hydrogen is one of the most abundant chemical elements on Earth, so it is no surprise that researchers have been puzzling over how to use this element to their advantage for energy production for quite some time. The most common element in the universe also promises to be the fuel and energy source of the future. But until then, there are still many challenges, one of them being how to get hydrogen in an environmentally friendly but efficient way. Scientists talked about different ways of hydrogen production, their potential, and the future of hydrogen use.
Program recording in Latvian