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 · Thu Jan 14 00:00:00 EST 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)

In this study, a low-cost additive manufacturing technology, electron beam melting (EBM), is employed for the first time to fabricate titanium liquid/gas diffusion media with high-corrosion resistances and well-controlled multifunctional parameters, including two-phase transport and high electric/thermal conductivities. Its application in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs) has been investigated in-situ with modular galvano (MG) and galvano electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (GEIS) and characterized ex-situ with SEM and XRD. Compared with conventional woven and sintered liquid/gas diffusion layers (LGDLs), much better performance is obtained with EBM-fabricated LGDLs due to a significant reduction of ohmic losses. The EBM technology components exhibited several distinct advantages in fabricating LGDLs: well-controllable pore morphology and structure, rapid prototyping, fast manufacturing, highly customizable design, and economic. In addition, by taking advantage of additive manufacturing, it is 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 components. More importantly, this development will provide LGDLs with well-controllable pore morphologies, which will be valuable to develop sophisticated models of PEMECs with optimal and repeatable performance. Finally and furthermore, it could lead to a manufacturing solution that greatly simplifies the PEMEC/fuel cell components.

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

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

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

OSTI ID:: 1255656

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1261266; OSTI ID: 1352948

Journal Information:: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 41, Issue 4; 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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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
CO2-assisted regeneration of a polymer electrolyte water electrolyzer contaminated with metal ion impurities Ugljesa, Babic,; Mateusz, Zlobinski,; J., Schmidt, Thomas ETH Zurich https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000350272	text	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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