Abstract
Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers (PEMWEs) are a promising technology to combat the deleterious effects of climate change [1]. It uses intermittent electricity from sustainable energy sources to electrochemically generate green hydrogen – a carbon-free energy carrier. Most importantly, the integration of water electrolyzers with fuel cells into a single reversible system is an enabler to achieving hydrogen-based long-duration energy storage. To make PEMWE systems more cost-competitive and technologically viable, it is essential to control the ohmic and mass transport limitations, a significant contribution of which stems from the fibrous porous transport layers (PTLs). In this work, we present a multiscale framework to investigate the effect of PTL electrode parameters on the electrochemical response of the PEMWE. Our starting point is stochastically generated PTL configurations with a host of microstructural features such as fiber diameter, porosity, fiber orientation, etc. The salient morphology-dependent transport properties like tortuosities, effective electronic conductivities, and two-phase permeabilities are then evaluated by employing pore-network modeling [2]. These are subsequently deployed to a physics-based multiphase reactive transport model [3] of the electrolyzer to quantify the concomitant overpotential modes. The interplay of operating regimes and PTL structural parameters on the resistive signature is further delineated. An optimization of the PTL architecture along with its pore size distribution investigated in this study can guide the design of experiments towards high-performing PEMWEs with enhanced catalyst utilization and mass transport.
Published Version
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