SBIR Phase II: Dual Element Matrix (DEM) Water Electrolyzer

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使现场制氢方便和经济可行。氢是一种广泛用于工业的化学物质，是电动汽车的替代燃料来源，可以增加行驶里程，缩短加油时间，但由于对加油基础设施的需求，氢的采用受到限制。解决这一问题的一种方法是通过分解水来制造氢气，从而减轻了与氢气输送和储存相关的安全、后勤和可靠性问题，但现有技术的成本和运营成本都很高。该提案的目标是推进水分解技术，实现无污染、零排放的氢气解决方案。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目将开发一种先进的电解槽。该项目将(1)在工业规模上合成催化剂和制造这些电极；(2)表征电极结构与动力学和传质限制之间的关系；(3)确定将这些电极的性能转化为工业尺寸原型所需的电极结构、堆栈压缩和流速。该项目将利用数学模型来指导电极架构的开发，并在使用4公斤/天的电极堆之前，使用三个电池的工业尺寸测试堆进行实验测试。此外，该项目还将在4千克/天的加压堆中使用电极，并将这些组件集成在一起，在20巴的压力下生产纯度达到99.998%的SAE J2719标准的氢气。预计最终系统的堆效率和系统效率目标分别为43千瓦时/千克和55千瓦时/千克。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to make on-site hydrogen generation convenient and economically viable. Hydrogen is a chemical used widely in industry and serves an alternative fuel source for electric vehicles, increasing drive range and shortening refueling time, but adoption has been limited by the needs for refueling infrastructure. One method to address this is to create hydrogen by splitting water, alleviating the safety, logistical, and reliability issues associated with the delivery and storage of hydrogen, but existing technology has been associated with high capital and operating costs. The objective of this proposal is to advance water splitting technology, enabling a non-polluting, zero-emission hydrogen solution.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop an advanced electrolyzer. The project will (1) synthesize the catalysts and fabricate these electrodes on an industrial scale; (2) characterize the relationship between electrode architecture and kinetic and mass-transfer limitations; and (3) identify the electrode architecture, stack compression, and flow rates required to translate the performance of these electrodes to an industrial-sized prototype. The project will utilize mathematical modeling to guide electrode architecture development and a three cell industrial-sized test stack for experimental testing before employing electrodes in a full 4 kg/day stack. Furthermore, the project will employ the electrodes in a 4 kg/day pressurized stack and integrate these components to produce hydrogen at 20 bar to the SAE J2719 standard of 99.998% purity. The projected targets for stack and system efficiency for the final system are 43 kWh/kg and 55 kWh/kg.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.