Business Daily Media

Men's Weekly

.

HKU Engineering ‘Super Steel’ team develops New Ultra Stainless Steel for Hydrogen Production

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 17 November 2023 - A research project led by Professor Mingxin Huang at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has made a brand-new breakthrough over conventional stainless steel and the development of stainless steel for hydrogen (SS-H2).



Professor Mingxin Huang and Dr Kaiping Yu
Professor Mingxin Huang and Dr Kaiping Yu


This marks another major achievement by Professor Huang's team in its 'Super Steel' Project, following the development of the anti-COVID-19 stainless steel in 2021, and ultra-strong and ultra-tough Super Steel in 2017 and 2020 respectively.

The new steel developed by the team exhibits high corrosion resistance, enabling its potential application for green hydrogen production from seawater, where a novel sustainable solution is still in the pipeline.

The performance of the new steel in salt water electrolyser is comparable to the current industrial practice using Titanium as structural parts to produce hydrogen from desalted seawater or acid, while the cost of the new steel is much cheaper.

The discovery has been published in Materials Today in the paper titled "A sequential dual-passivation strategy for designing stainless steel used above water oxidation." The research achievements are currently applying for patents in multiple countries, and two of them has already been granted authorisation.

Since its discovery a century ago, stainless steel has always been an important material widely used in corrosive environments. Chromium is an essential element in establishing the corrosion resistance of stainless steel. Passive film is generated through the oxidation of chromium (Cr) and protects stainless steel in natural environments. Unfortunately, this conventional single-passivation mechanism based on Cr has halted further advancement of stainless steel. Owing to the further oxidation of stable Cr2O3 into soluble Cr(VI) species, tranpassive corrosion inevitably occurs in conventional stainless steel at ~1000 mV (saturated calomel electrode, SCE), which is below the potential required for water oxidation at ~1600 mV.

254SMO super stainless steel, for instance, is a benchmark among Cr-based anti-corrosion alloys and has superior pitting resistance in seawater; however, transpassive corrosion limits its application at higher potentials.

By using a "sequential dual-passivation" strategy, Professor Huang's research team developed the novel SS-H2 with superior corrosion resistance. In addition to the single Cr2O3-based passive layer, a secondary Mn-based layer forms on the preceding Cr-based layer at ~720 mV. The sequential dual-passivation mechanism prevents the SS-H2 from corrosion in chloride media to an ultra-high potential of 1700 mV. The SS-H2 demonstrates a fundamental breakthrough over conventional stainless steel.

"Initially, we did not believe it because the prevailing view is that Mn impairs the corrosion resistance of stainless steel. Mn-based passivation is a counter-intuitive discovery, which cannot be explained by current knowledge in corrosion science. However, when numerous atomic-level results were presented, we were convinced. Beyond being surprised, we cannot wait to exploit the mechanism," said Dr Kaiping Yu, the first author of the article, whose PhD is supervised by Professor Huang.

From the initial discovery of the innovative stainless steel to achieving a breakthrough in scientific understanding, and ultimately preparing for the official publication and hopefully its industrial application, the team devoted nearly six years to the work.

"Different from the current corrosion community, which mainly focuses on the resistance at natural potentials, we specialises in developing high-potential-resistant alloys. Our strategy overcame the fundamental limitation of conventional stainless steel and established a paradigm for alloy development applicable at high potentials. This breakthrough is exciting and brings new applications." Professor Huang said.

At present, for water electrolyser in desalted seawater or acid solutions, expensive Au- or Pt-coated Ti are required for structural components. For instance, the total cost of a 10-megawatt PEM electrolysis tank system in its current stage is approximately HK$17.8 million, with the structural components contributing up to 53% of the overall expense. The breakthrough made by Professor Huang's team makes it possible to replace these expensive structural components with more economically steel. As estimated, the employment of SS-H2 is expected to cut the cost of structural material by about 40 times, demonstrating a great foreground of industrial applications.

"From experimental materials to real products, such as meshes and foams, for water electrolysers, there are still challenging tasks at hand. Currently, we have made a big step toward industrialisation. Tons of SS-H2-based wire has been produced in collaboration with a factory from the Mainland. We are moving forward in applying the more economical SS-H2 in hydrogen production from renewable sources," added Professor Huang.

Link to the paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369702123002390

Please click here for a short video showing how the new stainless steel produces hydrogen in salt water.

Hashtag: #HKU

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

News from Asia

XCL World Academy Opens New Early & Primary Years Campus in Singapore

New learning spaces advance XWA’s “Academy of the World” vision, integrating bilingual education and AI literacy from the earliest years. SINGAPORE - Media OutReach Newswire - 22 October 2025 - XC...

CAAT Reports 10 Years of Success as Thailand Tops Global Aviation Safety Scores at 91.35%, Surpassing the Global Average by Over 20%

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Media OutReach Newswire - 15 October 2025 - The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) announced the results of the audit on the civil aviation safety oversight system und...

National Treasure Returns to "Hunan":The Zidanku Chu Silk Manuscripts(Volumes Ⅱ and Ⅲ)Incorporated into the Collection of Hunan Museum

CHANGSHA, HUNAN - Media OutReach Newswire - 22 October 2025 - On the morning of October 13, a ceremony for the transfer and incorporation of the Zidanku Chu Silk Manuscripts (Volumes Ⅱ and Ⅲ), nam...

BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP Heads to Sepang After Historic Double Podium in Indonesia

SEPANG, MALAYSIA - Media OutReach Newswire - 23 October 2025 - BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP arrives at the Petronas Grand Prix of Malaysia riding momentum from a historic double-podium fin...

Ecube Car Rental Expands Car Rental Fleet to Meet Growing Demand in Singapore

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach Newswire - 23 October 2025 - Ecube Car Rental, a leading provider of car leasing solutions in Singapore, has expanded its rental fleet with a range of new models to ...

HGC wins "The Outstanding Award of ESG 2025"

Uunderscoring HGC’s Dedication to Embed ESG into Business Operation HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 23 October 2025 - HGC Global Communications ("HGC" or the "Group"), a fully-fledged ...

Chinese Cosmetics Companies Sweep Awards at 2025 INPD in Paris

BEIJING, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire - 21 October 2025 - On October 15-16, the annual global beauty innovation event, the 2025 INPD was held in Paris, France. From unveiling of the INPD awards...

Dah Sing Bank New Personal Loan Plan with Ultra-Low Interest Rates

Extra HKD200 Supermarket Coupon for New-to-Bank Customers HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 23 October 2025 - To help customers take advantage of the low interest rate environment, Dah Sin...

Galaxy Macau Strikes Gold at the Tatler Best Awards with 8½ Otto e Mezzo BOMBANA and Long Bar Named Among Asia-Pacific’s Finest

Michelin-starred 8½ Otto e Mezzo BOMBANA recognized for the second year running while Long Bar makes the prestigious list just one year after opening MACAU SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 23 Octob...

Hongkong Land pioneers Hong Kong's first tempered and laminated glass recycling solution at Tomorrow’s CENTRAL

Key highlights include: Hongkong Land originates a groundbreaking closed-loop circular economy initiative in partnership with Gammon Construction and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, ...

pay.com.au unveils first-of-its-kind FX rewards feature, becoming the most flexible rewards solution for Aussie businesses

pay.com.au, the end-to-end payments and rewards platform, today announced the launch of International Payments, Australia’s first foreign exchange...

Yellow Canary partners with Celery to bring pre-payroll assurance technology to Australia

Wage underpayment headlines continue to put pressure on employers of all sizes, revealing how costly payroll mistakes can be for small and medium bu...

Brennan Bolsters Leadership to Accelerate Next Growth Chapter

In a move to further embed cybersecurity at the heart of its business strategy and deliver sovereign secure-by-design solutions for its customers, A...

How to Be Investable: Insights from Richelle Nicols, CEO of Pollinatr

Richelle Nicols is the CEO of Pollinatr, a pioneering investment and business development program designed to support and accelerate the growth of s...

What Can Australian SMEs Hope For in a Meeting Between Albanese and Trump?

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia, international politics might seem distant—but when leaders like Prime Minister Anthony...

Qantas to Serve Nan’s Davidson Plum Cookie

Lake Macquarie, NSW (Awabakal Country): From a single mother’s kitchen bench to supermarket shelves, Wiradjuri entrepreneur Terri-Ann “Tezzi” Dani...