Research Progress | Academician Zheng Nanfeng and Associate Professor Tao Huabing Team Discuss New Perspective on Research and Industrialization of PEM Electrolyzed Water Technology-Amoy Island Hydrogen（Xiamen）Technology Co., Ltd.

Research Progress | Academician Zheng Nanfeng and Associate Professor Tao Huabing Team Discuss New Perspective on Research and Industrialization of PEM Electrolyzed Water Technology

Release time:

2024-07-03

Recently, Academician Zheng Nanfeng of Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory and Associate Professor Tao Huabing's team were invited to publish a review article (DOI: 10.1038/s41565-024-01699-x) on the topic of "The gap between academic research on exchange membrane water electrolysers and industrial demands" in the Nature Nanotechnology journal, which deeply discussed the key gap between basic research and industrial application of proton exchange membrane electrolyzed water (PEMWE) technology and provided some thoughts for future research directions.

In the global context of achieving carbon neutrality, PEMWE technology has attracted much attention due to its unique advantages in converting large-scale renewable energy power into green hydrogen. However, despite the substantial resources invested in basic research in this field, the translation of academic results to industrial-scale PEM electrolysers has been slow. In particular, the dependence of PEM electrolyzers on precious metals such as iridium and platinum has led to high costs, about 3-5 times that of alkaline electrolyzers, which seriously hinders their large-scale application.

Through the investigation of nearly 3000 relevant literatures in the Web of Science database, the research team found that the current academic research mainly focuses on the development of precious metal and non-precious metal catalysts, but relatively ignores other key components of PEM electrolyzers, such as catalytic layer (CL), bipolar plate (BPP), gas diffusion layer (GDL) and porous transport layer (PTL). This deviation in research focus leads to the neglect of some important technical issues, which in turn affects the overall performance and cost-effectiveness of PEM electrolyzers.

a. PEM electrolysers scale up from a single cell to a 100 kW stack. The first set of advanced equipment certified by China's National Energy Administration is "PEM electrolyzer with low iridium load and high current density", with iridium load of 0.4 mg/cm and performance of 2.7 A/cm @ 1.8V.

B. Polarization curve of PEM cell during scale-up.

c. Four-channel PEM electrolyzer test station.

The review article pointed out that academia is committed to pushing the limits of catalyst activity, while industry needs to strike a balance between cost, stability and safety. Industrial applications require PEM electrolyzers to operate stably under fluctuating conditions for more than ten years, which places extremely high demands on the stability of the electrolyzers. However, academic research usually only conducts short-term stability tests and cannot fully answer the long-term durability concerns of the industry. In addition, the review also emphasizes the balance between technology scale-up and scale-down. Since the synergy of heat, mass and charge transport in large electrolyzers is more complex, simple scale-up techniques often lead to large performance losses. Therefore, the construction of a small electrolytic cell research system that effectively simulates the actual working conditions of the electrolytic cell, and in-depth understanding of the different levels of factors affecting the performance of the electrolytic cell, can provide important support for the amplification and application of new technologies.

In the face of the volatility challenge of renewable energy, the review article raised the need to expand the operating range of PEM electrolyzers. In order to reduce the cost of hydrogen, PEM electrolysers need to be able to operate stably and efficiently under low load and overload conditions. Although hundreds of megawatts of PEM electrolysers have been installed worldwide, there is still insufficient data on their performance under actual fluctuating power conditions, which points the way for future research.

The research results of the team of Academician Zheng Nanfeng and Associate Professor Hua Bing Tao not only reveal the key gap between academic research and industrial application of PEMWE technology, but also provide insights and guidance for the future development of the field. By strengthening the cooperation and exchanges between academia and industry to jointly solve the challenges faced by PEMWE technology, it is expected to promote the early realization of large-scale application of the technology and contribute to the realization of the goal of carbon neutrality.

Academician Zheng Nanfeng, director of Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory, and Associate Professor Tao Huabing, head of PEM Electrolytic Water Hydrogen Production Project, are the co-corresponding authors of this article. This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (2023YFB4004600), the Science and Technology Project of Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory (IKKEM) (RD2021010401), the Science and Technology Project of Fujian Province (2022L3077, 2022H0004), and the State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces.