Scientists develop Tech to Transform Mars’ salty Water into Fuel and Oxygen

Electrolysis- is a process that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen- requires removing the salt. It is a cumbersome, costly endeavor in a harsh, dangerous environment.

If oxygen and hydrogen could be directly coerced out of briny water, this electrolysis process would be much less complicated—and less expensive.

A new technology developed by engineers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis does the same.

While being useful on Earth, where it opens up the oceans as a viable oxygen and fuel source, this new technology, i.e., brine electrolyzer, can get oxygen, fuel from Mars’s salty water as well.

The system uses electricity to split salt water into oxygen and hydrogen, and it has been shown to operate in the Martian atmosphere at -33 degrees Fahrenheit (-36 degrees Celsius).

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