Additive manufactured bipolar plate for high-efficiency hydrogen production in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells

Yang, Gaoqiang; Mo, Jingke; Kang, Zhenye; List, III, Frederick A.; Green, Jr., Johney B.; Babu, Sudarsanam S.; Zhang, Feng -Yuan

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.04.100

Title: Additive manufactured bipolar plate for high-efficiency hydrogen production in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells

Journal Article · Sat May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.04.100· OSTI ID:1361233

Yang, Gaoqiang ^[1]; Mo, Jingke ^[1]; Kang, Zhenye ^[1];

^[2]; Green, Jr., Johney B. ^[3]; Babu, Sudarsanam S. ^[4];

^[1]

Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology is capable of fast and low-cost prototyping from complex 3D digital models. To take advantage of this technology, a stainless steel (SS) plate with parallel flow field served as a combination of a cathode bipolar plate and a current distributor; it was fabricated using selective laser melting (SLM) techniques and investigated in a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cell (PEMEC) in-situ for the first time. The experimental results show that the PEMEC with an AM SS cathode bipolar plate can achieve an excellent performance for hydrogen production for a voltage of 1.779 V and a current density of 2.0 A/cm2. The AM SS cathode bipolar plate was also characterized by SEM and EDS, and the results show a uniform elemental distribution across the plate with very limited oxidization. Finally, this research demonstrates that AM method could be a route to aid cost-effective and rapid development of PEMECs.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Advanced Manufacturing Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308; AC05-00OR22725; FE0011585

OSTI ID:: 1361233

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1396509; OSTI ID: 1615831

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-4A00-68481

Journal Information:: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 42, Issue 21; ISSN 0360-3199

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 57 works

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Analytical electrolyzer enabling operando characterization of flow plates Wheeler, Danika G.; Virca, Carolyn N.; Berlinguette, Curtis P. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 90, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5053600	journal	July 2019
Corrosion of metallic materials fabricated by selective laser melting Kong, Decheng; Dong, Chaofang; Ni, Xiaoqing npj Materials Degradation, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-019-0086-1	journal	June 2019

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08 HYDROGEN
additive manufacturing
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