Separation of Polarizations Using Shifted Electrode Arrangement in Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) has attracted much attention because of its advantages such as the ability to downsize the equipment and produce high-purity hydrogen. For further improvement of the efficiency and durability of PEMWE, it is necessary to separate and examine polarizations. However, it is difficult to separate the anodic and cathodic polarizations by the AC impedance method. Also, it is difficult to separate resistance polarizations by using the reference poles with normal electrodes as shown in Figure 1 (a). Therefore, we are developing a device in which the electrode arrangement of both poles is deliberately shifted and a reference electrode is placed on each of the anode and cathode, as shown in Figure 1 (a) [1]. Since the phenomena in PEMWE are complicated due to the mutual influence of material/electric charge transport and reaction distribution, a multiphysical numerical analysis considering the potential distribution in the shifted electrode structure have been performed using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4. Ohm's law was solved for the ionic charge transport in the electrolyte and the ionomer of the catalyst layer and also applied to the contact resistance between the electrode and the current collector. Butler-Volmer's equation was used for the activation overpotential at both poles. Figure 1(b) shows the electrolyte potential distribution when the electrode arrangement is shifted, and the potential distribution was completely changed from the (a). Figure 2 shows the relationship between the shift amount of electrode and the potential difference between both reference electrodes. The potential difference between both reference electrodes increases as the shift amount of electrode increases, and the rate of change of the potential difference decreases as the shift amount increases. Design and data processing based on these numerical results will lead to the development of devices that can perform more accurate separation of polarizations.Reference1) S. Mitsushima, H. Kashiwagi, K.Nagasawa, and Y. Kuroda, ECS Meet. Abstr., MA2019-02, 1715 (2019). Figure 1