Plate shaped catalysts for polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis

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Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis provides a promising zero-emission free means of producing hydrogen. However, via PEM electrolysis, hydrogen is prohibitively expensive, particularly for transportation applications. In order to reduce the cost of hydrogen, we must reduce the cost of the components and the power demands. The catalyst coated membrane contributes up to 47% of the stack cost, and conventional titanium porous transport layers used to withstand corrosive anode conditions contribute up to 25% of the stack cost. The anode is particularly important because it hosts a multiphase counterflow regime, whereby liquid water reactant must flow through the porous transport layer (PTL) to reach the catalyst layer (CL). Simultaneously, oxygen gas produced at the catalyst layer must exit the system via the opposite direction. Unfortunately, oxygen gas tends to accumulate within the anode, hindering the effective transport of reactant liquid water, which results in significant mass transport losses that translate into increased power demands. Therefore, lower-cost optimized CLs are needed, and these materials must be tailored for enhanced multiphase transport behaviour in the PTL to reduce operating costs. In this work, Prof. Bazylak is partnering with Blue-O Technology to examine their novel plate-shaped catalysts for PEM electrolyzer applications and provide recommendations on how to tailor the architecture of the catalyst layer and bipolar plate/cell configuration for optimal performance.