Next-generation anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers operating for commercially relevant lifetimes

By Behrooz Motealleh, Zengcai Liu, R. Masel, J. Sculley, Zhengquan Ni, Laureen Meroueh. 2020

208 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Alkaline anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis has gained increasing attention due to its potential to achieve low-cost, high performance hydrogen production. However, most existing membranes are not durable in industrial settings. Here, we demonstrate good performance relative to industrial parameters using Sustainion® anion exchange membranes. Long-duration tests showed stable performance of 1 A/cm2 at 1.85 V with a degradation rate of less than 1 μV/h over 10,000 h. The projected lifetime is thus over 20 years. Daily on/off cycling performance over the course of 30 years was simulated experimentally through accelerated voltage shock tests, resulting in a performance loss of only 0.15 μV/cycle over 11,000 cycles. As shown through impact and crossover testing, an improvement in performance is achieved by the addition of zirconia to the polymer matrix and mechanically reinforcing the membrane.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Energy Engineering and Power Technology, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/73bdd92bdc15d023c837aae8aae302cccf06ffc7