Additive manufacturing of liquid/gas diffusion layers for low-cost and high-efficiency hydrogen production

Mo, Jingke; Zhang, Feng -Yuan; Dehoff, Ryan R.; Peter, William H.; Toops, Todd J.; Green, Jr., Johney Boyd

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.12.111

Title: Additive manufacturing of liquid/gas diffusion layers for low-cost and high-efficiency hydrogen production

Journal Article · 13 January 2016 · International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.12.111 · OSTI ID:1255656

Mo, Jingke ^[1]; Zhang, Feng -Yuan ^[1]; Dehoff, Ryan R. ^[2]; Peter, William H. ^[2]; Toops, Todd J. ^[2]; Green, Jr., Johney Boyd ^[2]

Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tullahoma, TN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The electron beam melting (EBM) additive manufacturing technology was used to fabricate titanium liquid/gas diffusion media with high-corrosion resistances and well-controllable multifunctional parameters, including two-phase transport and excellent electric/thermal conductivities, has been first demonstrated. Their applications in proton exchange membrane eletrolyzer cells have been explored in-situ in a cell and characterized ex-situ with SEM and XRD. Compared with the conventional woven liquid/gas diffusion layers (LGDLs), much better performance with EBM fabricated LGDLs is obtained due to their significant reduction of ohmic loss. The EBM technology components exhibited several distinguished advantages in fabricating gas diffusion layer: well-controllable pore morphology and structure, rapid prototyping, fast manufacturing, highly customizing and economic. In addition, by taking advantage of additive manufacturing, it possible to fabricate complicated three-dimensional designs of virtually any shape from a digital model into one single solid object faster, cheaper and easier, especially for titanium. More importantly, this development will provide LGDLs with control of pore size, pore shape, pore distribution, and therefore porosity and permeability, which will be very valuable to develop modeling and to validate simulations of electrolyzers with optimal and repeatable performance. Further, it will lead to a manufacturing solution to greatly simplify the PEMEC/fuel cell components and to couple the LGDLs with other parts, since they can be easily integrated together with this advanced manufacturing process

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Research Organization:: National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; FE0011585

OSTI ID:: 1255656

Journal Information:: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Journal Name: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 41; ISSN 0360-3199

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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In situ investigation on ultrafast oxygen evolution reactions of water splitting in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells Mo, Jingke; Kang, Zhenye; Yang, Gaoqiang Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 5, Issue 35 https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ta05681h	journal	January 2017
Enhancing the Performance of Fuel Cell Gas Diffusion Layers Using Ordered Microstructural Design Niblett, Daniel; Niasar, Vahid; Holmes, Stuart Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 167, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0202001jes	journal	November 2019
CO ₂ -Assisted Regeneration of a Polymer Electrolyte Water Electrolyzer Contaminated with Metal Ion Impurities Babic, Ugljesa; Zlobinski, Mateusz; Schmidt, Thomas Justus Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 166, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0851910jes	journal	January 2019
Critical Review—Identifying Critical Gaps for Polymer Electrolyte Water Electrolysis Development Babic, Ugljesa; Suermann, Michel; Büchi, Felix N. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 164, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.1441704jes	journal	January 2017
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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
3D printing
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
Electron beam melting additive manufacturing
Liquid/gas diffusion layers
Multifunctional materials
Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cell
electron beam melting additive manufacturing
liquid/gas diffusion layers
multifunctional materials
proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cell

Title: Additive manufacturing of liquid/gas diffusion layers for low-cost and high-efficiency hydrogen production

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