Plate shaped catalysts for polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis

聚合物电解质膜(PEM)水电解法是一种很有前途的零排放制氢方法。然而，通过PEM电解，氢气的价格高得令人望而却步，特别是在运输应用中。为了降低氢气的成本，我们必须降低零部件的成本和电力需求。催化剂涂层膜占电堆成本的47%，用于耐腐蚀阳极条件的传统钛多孔传输层占电堆成本的25%。阳极特别重要，因为它具有多相逆流体系，液态水反应物必须流经多孔传输层(PTL)才能到达催化层(CL)。同时，催化层产生的氧气必须从相反的方向离开系统。不幸的是，氧气气体往往会积聚在阳极内，阻碍反应物液态水的有效传输，这会导致显著的质量传输损失，从而导致功率需求增加。因此，需要低成本优化的CLS，这些材料必须针对PTL中增强的多相传输行为进行量身定制，以降低运营成本。在这项工作中，Bazylak教授与Blue-O Technology合作，研究他们用于PEM电解槽的新型板状催化剂，并就如何定制催化剂层的结构和双极板/电池配置以实现最佳性能提供建议。

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.