Influence of Supporting Electrolyte on Hydroxide Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis Performance: Catholyte

Kiessling, Aleksandr; Fornaciari, Julie C.; Anderson, Grace; Peng, Xiong; Gerstmayr, Andreas; Gerhardt, Michael; McKinney, Samuel; Serov, Alexey; Weber, Adam Z.; Kim, Yu Seung; Zulevi, Barr; Danilovic, Nemanja

doi:10.1149/1945-7111/ac4fed

Influence of Supporting Electrolyte on Hydroxide Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis Performance: Catholyte

Journal Article · Wed Feb 09 00:00:00 EST 2022 · Journal of the Electrochemical Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac4fed· OSTI ID:1844261

Kiessling, Aleksandr; ; ; ; Gerstmayr, Andreas; ; McKinney, Samuel; ; ; ; ;

Alkaline or hydroxide exchange membrane water electrolysis (HEMWE) is a promising technology for green hydrogen production using platinum group metal-free catalysts and stainless steel, an advantage of alkaline water electrolysis (AWE), and a gas-impermeable membrane, a parallel to proton exchange membrane electrolysis (PEMWE). However, the HEMWE requires supporting electrolytes and there is minimal understanding of their role on the respective reactions. Without SELs, HEMWE performance and durability are worse than PEMWE systems. Herein, consistently feeding potassium hydroxide anolyte, we systematically study the effects of catholyte SELs in HEMWEs including dry vs. wet operation, cation effects, anion effects, and cation/OH ratios on cell potential and stability. We report that (i) hydration of the cathode improves high current density operation by preventing dehydration of the hydroxide exchange membrane (HEM), (ii) there was no correlation between cation type and cell potential, (iii) cell potential and high frequency resistance did not correlate with SEL conductivity, (iv) cathodic carbonate SEL had a significant negative effect on cell performance, (v) increased cation/OH ratio also caused increased cell potentials. Overall, this study concludes that feeding water or potassium hydroxide solution is desirable to improve the AEMWE performance.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Fuel Cell Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1844261

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1842852
OSTI ID: 1855356
OSTI ID: 1868313

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-22-24055

Journal Information:: Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Journal Name: Journal of the Electrochemical Society Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 169; ISSN 0013-4651

Publisher:: The Electrochemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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