Schematic diagram of the electrolytic cell with a solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) is shown. The operating characteristics of the electrolyzers for getting hydrogen and the volt-ampere characteristics of the electrolytic cell with various catalysts are given for 90°C and various operating temperatures and pressures. It is noted that electrolyzers with SPE may become useful for decentralized production of hydrogen and its use in vehicles and power plants.In recent years, because of the necessity for solving ecological and energy problems, a steady trend has been developing toward switching to hydrogen energy technology, which anticipates wide-scale use of fuel cells with solid polymer electrolyte (SPE), which is also called proton exchange membrane (PEM). It is well known that for fuel cells it is expedient to use pure hydrogen as a fuel [1][2][3]. From this standpoint, a highly promising method of hydrogen production is electrolysis of water with an SPE [4].Electrolytic systems based on SPE enjoy, in comparison with conventional water-alkali electrolyzers, such advantages as ecological cleanness, much smaller mass and overall dimensions, much lower power consumption, and, what is very important, a high degree of purity of the gases, possibility for getting compressed gases right in the plant, higher safety level, etc. [5].Development of electrolyzers with SPE (a schematic drawing of the electrolytic cell with SPE is shown in Fig. 1) is historically linked with appearance of US company DuPont's Nafion-brand perforated ion-exchange membrane. The earliest electrolyzers with SPE were made in 1966 by General Electric (USA) [6] and were designed for special purposes (spaceships, submarines, etc.) as well as for use by the domestic industry.At the present time, the areas of application of electrolyzers with SPE have been widening. Apart from production of gases for fuel cells, they are used in analytical instrument making, systems for correction (stabilization) of water-chemical regime (behavior) of atomic reactors, hydrogen welding, metallurgy of special-purity metals and alloys, production of pure substances for electronic industry, analytical chemistry (equipment for gas chromatography, hydrogen supply of laboratories), etc.Abroad, the major makers of electrolyzers with SPE are the American firms Hamilton Sundstrand [7] and Proton Energy Systems Inc. [8] (electrolyzers operating under pressures of up to 2.8 MPa with a hydrogen producing capacity of up to 26 m 3 /h with possible integration of the electrolyzers to the power plant with a capacity of 260 m 3 /h) and the German firm H-tec [9] (electrolyzers with a power of up to 10 kW). Research and development of electrolyzers with SPE are being carried out in Norway (Norwegian University of Science and Technology [10-12]) and Japan (Matsushita Electric Works Ltd.[13] and Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. [14][15][16]). For example, concrete progress has been made within the framework of the Japanese WE-NET program [15,16] (cell with an area of 2500 cm 2 and an operating voltage U ...
