FCH JU Novel materials and system designs for low cost, efficient and durable PEM electrolysers (NOVEL)

-

Water electrolysis based on PEM technology has demonstrated its appliciability to produce hydrogen and oxygen in a clean and safe way. Systems have been demonstrated in a wide range of niche applications with capacities from 1 NI/hr to 30 Nm3/hr. PEM ele ctrolycers offer efficiency, safety and compactness benefits over alkaline electrolysers. However, these benefits have not been fully realised in distributed hydrogen generation principally due to high capital costs. Principal reasons for high capital c osts of present state of the art PEM electrolysers are: - use of expensive materials (noble metals, perfluorinated ion-exchange membranes) - high material usage (e.g. catalyst loading, thickness of bipolar plates) - limited durability of the main componen ts (membrane, electrode, current collectors and bipolar plates) - complex stack design This project will take advantage of the progress beyond the state of the art achieved by the partners involved in the NEXPEL project. In the initial phase of this proj ect, durability studies of electrolyser stacks developed in NEXPEL will be performed. The stacks will be run at different operating conditions (low pressure, constand load, fluctuating load coupled with RES). Invaluable data and post mortem analysis can b e extracted from this demonstration part of NEXPEL and fed into the further development of novel materials for and design of cost competitive, hifg efficiency, small scale PEM electrolysers for home/community use. The functionality of the novel materials will be proved on the laboratory scale with a small elctrolylis stack.