Hydrogen production by the decomposition of water

Claim 1

A process for producing hydrogen comprising: (1) passing an electric current from a cathode to an anode through water containing sulfur dioxide so as to produce hydrogen gas at the cathode and so as to oxidize the sulfur dioxide to form sulfuric acid at the anode, thus producing an aqueous solution of sulfuric acid; (2) separating said hydrogen gas from said aqueous solution of sulfuric acid; (3) adding to said aqueous solution of sulfuric acid at least one compound selected from the group consisting of M r X s , wherein M is at least one metal ion selected from the group consisting of Ba +2 , Ca +2 , Sr +2 , La +3 , and Pb +2 , wherein X is at least one radical selected from the group consisting of molybdate, tungstate, and metaborate, wherein r is an integer selected from the group consisting of 1 and 2, wherein s is an integer selected from the group consisting of 1, 2, and 3, producing a mixture of at least one water insoluble sulfate of M and at least one water insoluble oxide of molybdenum, tunsten, or boron; (4) filtering said mixture of water insoluble sulfate and water insoluble oxide; (5) heating said mixture of water insoluble sulfate and water insoluble oxide to a sulfate decomposition temperature which is sufficiently high to form sulfur trioxide gas and to reform said M r X s ; (6) separating said sulfur trioxide gas from said M r X s which was reformed in step (5); and (7) recycling said M r X s to step (3) above.