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Sustainable manufacturing

Turning sun and seawater into disinfectant

Nature Sustainability (2025)Cite this article

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Hypochlorite is in wide industrial and domestic use as disinfectant, but its manufacture, involving the processing and transport of hazardous chemicals, is problematic. Now a safer, more sustainable alternative, powered by sunlight and seawater, has been developed.

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Fig. 1: A co-generation electrolyser powered by renewable electricity and supplied with seawater and solar energy produces disinfectant (hypochlorite), hydrogen fuel, magnesium hydroxide and calcium carbonate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Européen des Membranes, University of Montpellier, ENSCM, CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Yaovi Holade & Mikhael Bechelany

  2. Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France

    Yaovi Holade

  3. Functional Materials Group, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Mubarak Al-Abdullah, Kuwait

    Mikhael Bechelany

Authors
  1. Yaovi Holade
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  2. Mikhael Bechelany
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Correspondence to Yaovi Holade.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Holade, Y., Bechelany, M. Turning sun and seawater into disinfectant. Nat Sustain (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01564-2

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