An industrial demonstration project in China has successfully shown how hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), a highly toxic industrial waste gas, can be fully decomposed into high-purity hydrogen and sulfur, creating a new pathway for greener operations in natural gas, petrochemical and coal industries.

The project, capable of processing 100,000 cubic meters of H₂S per year, was led by Li Can at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It uses off-field electrocatalysis to completely split H₂S into hydrogen and sulfur, overcoming long-standing safety and scale-up challenges in conventional electrocatalytic systems.

Partners include Shandong Sunway Chemical Group Co. Ltd., the CAS Yulin Institute of Clean Energy Innovation and Haoming Energy Technology (Dalian) Co., Ltd..

The demonstration facility uses H₂S from a methanol plant at Henan Energy Chemical Group Co., Ltd., achieving a conversion rate above 99.999%, with both hydrogen and sulfur meeting commercial standards.

Beyond eliminating a major environmental hazard, the technology enables resource recycling. If applied to all H₂S treated annually in China using renewable power, it could produce about 730,000 tons of low-carbon hydrogen each year, delivering significant environmental and economic benefits.