BASELINE MEMBRANE SELECTION AND CHARACTERIZATION FOR AN SDE

Abstract

Thermochemical processes are being developed to provide global-scale quantities of hydrogen. A variant on sulfur-based thermochemical cycles is the Hybrid Sulfur (HyS) Process which uses a sulfur dioxide depolarized electrolyzer (SDE) to produce the hydrogen. In FY05 and FY06, testing at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) explored a low temperature fuel cell design concept for the SDE. The advantages of this design concept include high electrochemical efficiency and small footprint that are crucial for successful implementation on a commercial scale. A key component of the SDE is the ion conductive membrane through which protons produced at anode migrate to the cathode and react to produce hydrogen. An ideal membrane for the SDE should have both low ionic resistivity and low sulfur dioxide transport. These features allow the electrolyzer to perform at high currents with low potentials, along with preventing contamination of both the hydrogen output and poisoning of the catalysts involved. Another key component is the electrocatalyst material used for the anode and cathode. Good electrocatalysts should be chemically stable and have a low overpotential for the desired electrochemical reactions. This report summarizes results from activities to evaluate commercial and experimental membranes for the SDE. Several different types of commercially-available membranes were analyzed for sulfur dioxide transport as a function of acid strength including perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA), sulfonated poly-etherketone-ketone, and poly-benzimidazole (PBI) membranes. Experimental membranes from the sulfonated diels-alder polyphenylenes (SDAPP) and modified Nafion{reg_sign} 117 were evaluated for SO{sub 2} transport as well. These membranes exhibited reduced transport coefficient for SO{sub 2} transport without the loss in ionic conductivity. The use of Nafion{reg_sign} with EW 1100 is recommended for the present SDE testing due to the limited data regarding chemical and mechanical stability of experimental membranes. Development of new composite membranes by incorporating metal particles or by forming multilayers between PFSA membranes and hydrocarbon membranes will provide methods that will meet the SDE targets (SO{sub 2} transport reduction by a factor of 100) while decreasing catalyst layer delamination and membrane resistivity.