Recycling of Critical Raw Materials from Hydrogen Chemical Storage Stacks (PEMWE), Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEA) and Electrocatalysts

Abstract

The increase in energy demands for the establishment of a modern digital era has resulted in the significant limitation of the energy sources. The depletion of energy reserves drew attention to alterative renewable energy sources that can satisfy the energy requirements in an environmentally friendly way. Hydrogen is an ideal chemical energy storage. Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is a promising technology as a green source of high-purity hydrogen. For that reason, PEMWE devices are already used in aerospace to produce oxygen for the crew on the Space Stations. The use of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs, especially Pt and Ir) and high cost materials in the PEMWE systems compromises their economic feasibility. It is necessary to implement End-of-Life (EoL) strategies that optimise the recovery of CRMs within feasible and environmentally friendly processes. In this paper an overview of the existing technologies for recycling of Membrane Electrode Assembles and electrocatalysts from PEMWE systems are revealed. MONOLITHOS has developed a novel optimized hydrometallurgical method for high PGMs recovery from spent automotive catalysts. This work aims to describe how this method can be applied to the EoL phase of PEMWE to improve techno-environmental and techno-economical performance of CRMs recovery.