Performance assessment of gas crossover phenomenon and water transport mechanism in high pressure PEM electrolyzer

Abstract

To improve proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzes’ performance the voltage loss through them should be avoided. In this work, it is intended to analyze losses including of diffusion loss, ohmic loss due to electrode, bipolar plate (BP), and membrane resistances, and gas crossover associated with the water transferring mechanisms. All of the losses are associated with water transferring mechanisms, which is created due to electro-osmoic drag, pressure differential between the anode and cathode sides, and diffusion. Furthermore, the effect of membrane thickness, cathode pressure, and operating temperature on the hydrogen crossover is examined. In addition, the contribution of ohmic loss due to electrode bipolar plate (BP), and membrane resistances is studied and, the contribution of different losses on the cell performance is discussed. Results show that raising cathode pressure from 1 to 40 bar lead to the increment of anodic hydrogen content from 1.038% to 21% at the specific current density of 10,000 A/m2. Enhancing the thickness of membrane has considerable impact on decrementing anodic hydrogen content, but the mass transfer loss rises from 0.022 to 0.027 V with enhancing membrane thickness from 50 to 300 μm, respectively. Furthermore, the contribution of voltage losses, assigned to each of losses are equal to 85%, 3%, and 12% for activation, diffusion and ohmic losses, respectively. It is found that, from the reported contribution for ohmic loss, the contribution of electrode BP, and membrane resistances are 31% and 69%, respectively.