Influence of variations of operating parameters on the functioning of a PEM electrolyzer and PEM fuel cell systems

Beainy, Anissia; Moubayed, Nazih

doi:10.1109/eecea.2016.7470767

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…Determination of the I – V curve with increasing the electrolysis current at a rate of 0.1 A/s also allowed for the calculation of the electrolyzer stack internal resistance in the current range of 6–12 A, where there is a linear correlation between the applied voltage and current. − From the slope of these I – V curves (Figure ), the internal resistance of the stack during the electrolysis of Milli-Q water and the RO-treated effluent was found to be 0.104 and 0.126 Ω, respectively. The higher resistance during the electrolysis of the RO-treated effluents was attributed to the remaining low level of impurities in the RO-treated effluent.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrolysis of Tertiary Water Effluents─a Pathway to Green Hydrogen

Liu,

Bustamante,

Aguey-Zinsou

2024

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

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Hydrogen production via water electrolysis has the potential to lead to the decarbonization of the hard-to-abate sectors. The need of high-purity water to operate conventional electrolyzers would still require a purification stage prior to electrolysis. Tertiary effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants could reduce pressure on existing stressed water resources and enable hydrogen production at scale. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of producing hydrogen with a commercial proton exchange membrane electrolyzer by using tertiary effluents from an operating wastewater treatment plant. Analysis and modeling indicated that chloride (around <1 ppm), a ubiquitous component found in effluents, did not influence the electrolysis conditions. Monovalent cations such as Na+ and K+ decreased the electrolysis efficiency at lower electrolysis currents, but at high electrolysis currents, their migration to the cathode side led to a recovery in efficiency. Divalent cations have a stronger affinity to the electrolyzer-separating membrane. Their presence forced the use of reverse osmosis (RO) prior to electrolysis. Upon RO treatment, it was possible to electrolyze real tertiary effluents at a maximum efficiency of 59%, i.e., a hydrogen production rate of 1.79 L/min at 35 A of electrolysis current. These results indicate that tertiary effluents can be purified by standard technologies and used to produce green hydrogen. This is also a circular economy opportunity that can produce value-added products from a wastewater stream that is normally discharged to the environment.

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