SBIR Phase I: Improving Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers via Novel Electrode Geometry

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是，通过改进一项前景看好的水电解技术的关键功能部件，实现非常高效、低成本的绿色氢气生产。绿色氢气是一种化学燃料和原料，没有相关的二氧化碳排放。为了使我们的经济脱碳，绿色氢气可以解决我们经济中不容易使用清洁电力实现电气化的行业，例如炼钢、化工、供暖以及航运和航空等重型运输。然而，绿色氢气的成本仍然太高，无法推动大规模采用。该项目开发的纯水电解槽与目前最先进的相比，可以显著降低绿色氢气的生产成本：它们只需要水和电作为投入，并且完全使用低成本、无毒的材料，利用国内供应链。它们是模块化的，既可以开发大型氢气生产设施，也可以开发小型分散系统，例如用于现场操作或加油站。该项目不仅将有助于采用绿色氢气，还将阐明如何更广泛地使用活性表面的化学和电化学改性来更有效地进行电化学反应，如分解水。该SBIR第一阶段项目建议大幅改进阴离子交换膜电解槽(AEMEL)的关键部件：阳极电极。阳极是析氧反应(OER)的场所，这是电解制氢过程中一个必要但效率低下的步骤。通过改进阳极设计来增强OER动力学，如果将其转化为商业AEMEL系统，将直接导致绿色氢气的较低成本。该项目旨在用一种更简单的“统一”阳极取代传统的双层阳极，即在多孔传输层(PTL)的顶部涂覆一层复杂的催化层，使PTL功能化，从而不再需要催化层，反应动力学得到改善。在这个项目中，将结合两种方法使PTL表面功能化：增加电化学活性表面积(通过刻蚀、去合金化和沉积技术)和增加固有的催化OER活性(通过合金化和沉积技术)。这一努力预计将显著改善AEMEL的性能和寿命，将使用电化学方法进行评估，包括异地(3电极电池)和现场(在运行中的电解槽中)。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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) project is to enable very highly-efficient low-cost green hydrogen production by improving a key functional component of a promising water electrolysis technology. Green hydrogen is a chemical fuel and a feedstock with no associated CO2 emissions. In an effort to decarbonize our economy, green hydrogen can address sectors of our economy that are not easily electrified using clean electricity, for example steelmaking, chemicals, heating, and heavy transport such as shipping and aviation. However, the cost of green hydrogen is still too high to prompt large-scale adoption. The pure-water electrolyzers developed in this project can significantly reduce green hydrogen production costs compared to the current state-of-the-art: they require only water and electricity as inputs, and are entirely made of low-cost, non-toxic materials, utilizing domestic supply chains. They are modular, enabling the development of both large hydrogen production facilities and small decentralized systems, e.g., for on-site operations or refueling stations. This project will not only help the adoption of green hydrogen, it will also elucidate how the chemical and electrochemical modifications of active surfaces can more broadly be used to make electrochemical reactions, such as water splitting, more efficient.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to drastically improve a key component of an anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMEL): the anode electrode. The anode is the site of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a required but inefficient step during electrolytic hydrogen production. Enhancement of the OER kinetics by improved anode design, if translated to commercial AEMEL systems, would directly lead to a lower cost of green hydrogen. This project aims to replace the conventional two-layer anode, in which a complex catalyst layer is coated on top of a porous transport layer (PTL), with a simpler “unified” anode, in which the PTL is functionalized such that the catalyst layer is no longer necessary and the reaction kinetics are improved. In this project, two approaches to functionalize the PTL surface will be combined: the increase of the electrochemically active surface area (via etching, dealloying, and deposition techniques) and the increase of the intrinsic catalytic OER activity (via alloying and deposition techniques). This effort is expected to result in significantly improved AEMEL performance and lifetime, which will be evaluated using electrochemical methods, both ex situ (3-electrode cell) and in situ (in an operating electrolyzer).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.