Hydrogen Production Using a High-Efficiency Alkaline Water Electrolyzer

01/29/2021

Hydrogen is being reported as the key energy carrier to developing a clean and sustainable energy system. Water electrolysis is currently the cleanest method to produce hydrogen. Among the commercially available water electrolysis systems, alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) is the most well-established technology. But for a hydrogen economy to thrive there is still the need to improve AWE efficiency, without compromise the production cost. The present dissertation is part of the GreenH2ice project developed by TecnoVeritas, with the main objective of developing a high-efficiency alkaline water electrolyzer. In this work, the complete electrolyzer system is described. In addition, since the electrodes' catalytic behavior has a great weight in the electrolyte efficiency, the materials chosen for the electrodes were studied to validate their behavior towards the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The individual performance of nickel foam (NF) and 316L stainless steel foam (SSF) was studied in a 30 wt.% NaOH electrolyte, towards the HER and OER, respectively, using cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry and chronopotentiometry. Furthermore, the performance of the electrodes was also evaluated towards the overall water splitting, in a system with the NF as cathode and the SS foam as anode. Using the results obtained from the electrochemical studies of the foams, the behavior of the electrolyzer was simulated using MATLAB/Simulink. The theoretical polarization curve was obtained, as well as an estimation of the hydrogen production.

Authors in the community:

• 

  A

  Ana Lourenço Silva dos Santos

  ist180827

Supervisors of this institution:

• 

  D

  Diogo M. F. Santos

  ist45793

chemical-engineering - Chemical engineering

por - Portuguese

Instituto Superior Técnico