Microfluidic chips for investigating multiphase transport in porous media

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The polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer functions by converting electricity and water intohydrogen and oxygen, whereas the PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) performs the opposite task. Through these twotechnologies, hydrogen offers unparalleled advantages over other fuels, because carbon dioxide and othergreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are not produced during their operation. However, for these technologies tooperate as efficiently as possible, the by-products must be quickly removed to prevent any hindrance to theflow of reactants to the reaction sites.Recently Loop Energy has developed and patented a state-of-the-art PEMFC design, named the eFlow, whichhas reduced the cost of the PEMFC by 30% in comparison to traditional fuel cell products. However, LoopEnergy would like to know which aspects of their eFlow design could be translated to a PEM electrolyzer, andwhich will need to be specifically tailored to the new application. Dr. Bazylak's group at the University ofToronto will examine this question by producing statistically equivalent porous lab-on-chips, which reproducethe PEM electrolyzer's environment. Through use of fluorescence microscopy-based imaging, Dr. Bazylak'sgroup will be able to visualize the interactions of the liquid water/gaseous air interface with the solid particles,and the pore-to-pore interactions associated with non-wetting gaseous air invasion as the inlet water flow rateand the channel designs are varied. These fundamental studies will be used to provide direct insight into theapplicability of channel flow design for oxygen bubble removal for driving PEM electrolyzer costs down tocompetitive levels.