I'll just post here that it does not violate the second law of thermodynamics. It is a completely real phenomenon that one can verify at home with the ion exchange membranes used to make batteries. (Get some aluminum electrodes, on the scheme salty-fresh-salty water, and add some aluminum hydroxide on the negative side, so you'll have a neutral oxidation and reduction of aluminum on both sides.)

What those people created was just an incredibly better ion exchange membrane.