[JshWright]

This process still requires electricity to pass between the anode and cathode. It doesn't just magically split water.

To address your hypothetical though... Both would happen. Air pressure is just the weight of the atmosphere above you. If you add more gas to the atmosphere, it would indeed get 'bigger', and would therefore weigh more, resulting in higher air pressure.

[stephengillie]

Yes, this process requires so little electricity that it can be powered by scrap solar panels. I've got 2 at home that provide 1.5v each. TFA hasn't provided other details, such as required amperage.

[ars]

> Yes, this process requires so little electricity that it can be powered by scrap solar panels.

What?? The amount of hydrogen released is equal to 82% of the electricity input. Why are you saying "so little electricity"? If you have "so little electricity" you also have "so little hydrogen".

[stephengillie]

The process, as described, used 1.5v. That can be produced by a common solar panel. Thus we can scale it. And spread it across a small amount of time.

Did you and everyone think I was proposing to use gigawatts and electrolyse 1% of ocean water in a few seconds? O_o

[ars]

You can produce 100,000v by a common solar panel as well if you want. Voltage is completely irrelevant, what counts is energy.

> Thus we can scale it.

I don't follow. What does voltage have to do with anything?

> Did you and everyone think I was proposing to use gigawatts and electrolyse 1% of ocean water in a few seconds? O_o

Um, yes. Do you have the slightest idea how much energy it would take to electrolyze 1% of the ocean? I did some math for you: you need 1.752×10^26 joules. If you had a gigawatt available to you it would take 5,552,000,000 years.

[stephengillie]

I thought voltage, at a certain amperage, was a way of describing energy. Sorry for my confusion.

[ars]

You're not wrong, voltage times amperage does describe the energy, but voltage alone means very little.

In this case energy is what counts not voltage.