Green H2 Production by Water Electrolysis Using Cation Exchange Membrane: Insights on Activation and Ohmic Polarization Phenomena

Abstract

Low-temperature electrolysis by using polymer electrolyte membranes (PEM) can play an important role in hydrogen energy transition. This work presents a study on the performance of a proton exchange membrane in the water electrolysis process at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. In the perspective of applications that need a device with small volume and low weight, a miniaturized electrolysis cell with a 36 cm2 active area of PEM over a total surface area of 76 cm2 of the device was used. H2 and O2 production rates, electrical power, energy efficiency, Faradaic efficiency and polarization curves were determined for all experiments. The effects of different parameters such as clamping pressure and materials of the electrodes on polarization phenomena were studied. The PEM used was a catalyst-coated membrane (Ir-Pt-Nafion™ 117 CCM). The maximum H2 production was about 0.02 g min−1 with a current density of 1.1 A cm−2 and a current power about 280 W. Clamping pressure and the type of electrode materials strongly influence the activation and ohmic polarization phenomena. High clamping pressure and electrodes in titanium compared to carbon electrodes improve the cell performance, and this results in lower ohmic and activation resistances.

Green Synthesis of Cation Exchange Membranes: A Review

“…PSF Dense asymmetric gas separation membranes [154] Cellulose, CA 1 Membrane via phase inversion [155] Cyrene and Cygnet 0.0 2 CA, PSF and polyimides Flat sheet membranes using pure cyrene, pure cygnet or a blend of the two. [156] DMSO PES Ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes [157,158] OPBI 3 Sulfonation step performed with DMSO and CEM cast from a 12 wt% casting solution [52] PEEK-WC Comparison of DMAc and DMSO and varying multiple membrane synthesis parameters [145] Nafion polymer Influence of solubility parameters and dielectric constant [144] sPEEK Synthesis CEM [146,150] GVL CA, CTA 4 , PI, PES and PSF Membrane preparation via phase inversion [159] TamiSolve NxG PES Synthesis of porous membranes [138,160] PVDF-HFP 5 Porous membranes for membrane distillation [143,161] PVDF Porous membranes [162,163] PEEK Membrane for organic solvent nanofiltration [164] PSF Synthesis of a crosslinked support [165] PEEK-WC Synthesis catalytic membranes [166] Rhodiasolv ® PolarClean PES Ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes [167] PES, PSF and CA Ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes [168] Matrimid ® Microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes [169] Polarclean and GVL PSF Ultrafiltration membranes [170] PES and PET Ultrafiltration membranes [14]…”

“…Examples of such applications are (i) water electrolysis, which is a process where hydrogen and oxygen gases are produced via water splitting in an electrochemical cell. Depending on the type of water electrolysis technology, the compartments are separated by CEMs or anion exchange membranes (AEMs) [ 5 ]. (ii) Artificial photosynthesis, which can produce fuels and chemicals in addition to hydrogen gas via a sunlight-induced reaction at the cathode of an electrochemical cell.…”

Nickel and titanium metals for the hydrogen evolution reaction in water electrolysis: A comparative study

“…Calculating the power ohmic loss (P loss) is another vital parameter to assess cell performance, and it is depicted as the following [30]:…”

Mapping the Future of Green Hydrogen: Integrated Analysis of Poland and the EU’s Development Pathways to 2050

“…The outcome is highly pure hydrogen (>99.99%). If the electricity required for the reaction comes from renewable sources, water electrolysis does not cause GHG emissions [22]. Currently, less than 4% of hydrogen production is based on electrolysis processes.…”