H2terascale - Improved oxygen evolution catalysis to enable terawatt scale hydrogen production

通过分解水来生产氢气，可以将可再生能源转化为无碳、高能量密度的可持续燃料。到2050年，它将至少增加10倍，并有可能在交通、工业和供暖的脱碳方面发挥关键作用。然而，今天只有4%的氢气来自可再生资源；它主要是通过水蒸气转化化石燃料产生的，产生大量的二氧化碳。质子交换膜(PEM)电解器是将水分解为氧气和氢气的理想手段。它们很容易耦合到间歇性的可再生能源，如风能或太阳能。或者，PEM光电电解器可以通过将太阳能电池和电解器的功能结合在一个单片设备中来允许直接分解水。然而，目前的PEM电解器和光电电解器技术是不可持续的：它们需要大量的Ir基氧化物来催化阳极上的析氧。Ir是最稀缺的元素之一；因此，如果我们要扩大PEM电解槽技术的规模，达到它将产生全球影响的水平，即太瓦水平，我们需要将催化活性(基本上是每克Ir储存的功率)提高约25倍。此外，在使用过程中，Ir氧化物会缓慢腐蚀，限制了PEM电解槽的使用寿命。另一种解决方案可能是用Ir代替更丰富的元素；一些非贵金属氧化物，如基于锰的氧化物，在几个小时的过程中表现出一些短暂的活动，但仍远远达不到Ir的表现。无论我们使用Ir基催化剂还是非贵金属替代品，它们都需要在PEM电解槽中使用的酸性条件下具有更高的活性和稳定性，才能实现大规模制氢。在H_2万亿级中，我们将通过建立在析氧反应条件下控制Ir氧化物和锰氧化物催化剂的基本因素来应对这一挑战。我们聚集了一个由帝国理工学院和斯旺西的科学家领导的跨学科团队，得到了(I)三家英国公司，BP，Johnson Matthee和ITM Power(Ii)一家欧洲公司，HPNow(Ii)英国国家物理实验室和(Iii)一家海外机构Helmholtz Institute Erlangen Nürnberg的支持。我们将结合先进的操作手光谱技术，对使用最先进的薄膜沉积技术生产的大量不同催化剂材料的性能测试进行基准测试。我们将阐明催化剂结构、组成和功能之间的复杂关系。建立活性更高、稳定性更好的催化剂设计规则，为太瓦级制氢铺平道路。

Hydrogen production, by splitting water, enables the conversion of renewable energy into a carbon free, energy-dense sustainable fuel. It is set to increase by at least a factor of 10 by 2050, and has the potential to play a crucial role in decarbonising transport, industry and heating. However, only 4% of hydrogen produced today is from renewable sources; it is mainly produced by steam reforming fossil fuels, producing copious amounts of CO2.Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers constitute the ideal means of splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen. They are highly amenable to coupling to renewable electricity sources, such as wind or solar, which are intermittent. Alternatively, PEM photoelectrolysers could allow the direct splitting of water by combining the functionality of a solar cell and an electrolyser in a single monolithic device. However, current PEM electrolyser and photoelectrolyser technologies are unsustainable: they require copious amounts of iridium-based oxides to catalyse oxygen evolution at the anode. Iridium is one of the scarcest elements; hence, if we are to scale up PEM electrolyser technology to a level where it will make a global impact, i.e. the terawatt level, we need to increase the catalytic activity (essentially the power stored per gram of iridium) by a factor of ~25. Moreover, iridium oxides slowly corrode during use, limiting the lifetime of PEM electrolysers. An alternative solution, could be to substitute iridium for more abundant elements; some non-precious metal oxides, such as those based on manganese exhibit some short lived activity spanning the course of a few hours, but still fall far short of the performance of iridium. Regardless of whether we use iridium based catalysts or non precious metal alternatives, they need to be more active and stable under the acidic conditions employed in PEM electrolysers to enable large scale hydrogen production. In H2terascale, we will address this challenge by establishing the fundamental factors controlling iridium and manganese oxide catalysts under oxygen evolution reaction conditions. We have brought together a transdisciplinary team, led by scientists at Imperial College and Swansea, with the support of (i) three UK companies, BP, Johnson Matthey and ITM Power (ii) an European company, HPNow (ii) the UK's National Physical Laboratory and (iii) an overseas institutions, Helmholtz Institute Erlangen Nürnberg.We will couple advanced operando spectroscopy techniques to benchmark performance tests of a large number of different catalyst materials produced using state of the art thin film deposition technology. We will elucidate the intricate relationship between catalyst structure, composition and functionality. We will establish the design rules for more active more stable catalysts, paving the way for terawatt scale hydrogen production.