On the splitting of water

Future energy needs and requirements in manufacturing processes (like fertilizers, synfuels, etc.) makes hydrogen an important chemical commodity. It is projected that hydrogen required for various processes may reach 1.8 × 10 9 MBTU by the year 2000. This increases the importance of producing hydrogen especially from a cheap raw material like water. A survey of the different approaches for splitting water (electrolysis, plasmolysis, magnetolysis, magmalysis, photolysis, photoelectrochemical methods, radiolysis, etc.) is made and discussed in detail in this review.