An ideal power sector scenario for a clean and sustainable future would involve the harvesting of wind and solar energy for electricity, and using the excess energy to power electrolyzers – water splitters that produce hydrogen fuel (H2). The H2 can be stored long-term to provide a means of generating electricity when demand is high or in case of a blackout. The downfall is that electrolyzers are very expensive.
Now, researchers from different universities, with different advances in the technology, have joined forces by combining their work and developing a new version of the device that is low-cost and, therefore, scalable. The Washington State University and Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists’ new system is cheaper because it uses more abundant materials – unlike current electrolyzes that use precious metals as catalysts and housings (encasement).
Co-author Yu Seung Kim, a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said:
The current water electrolysis system uses a very expensive catalyst. In our system, we use a nickel-iron based catalyst, which is much cheaper, but the performance is comparable.
The collaboration began when The Washington State University team shared their development with Kim at Los Alamos. Their new device – which combined the Los Alamos-developed electrode binder and WSU’s catalyst boosted – was the best of both approaches. It increased the hydrogen production rate to almost ten times that of previous anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyzers. The breakthrough puts AEM electrolyzers on par with the currently used expensive proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. It makes the widespread deployment of the technology possible.
Co-author Yuehe Lin, professor at WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, said:
Water splitting is a clean technology, but you need electricity to do it. Now we have a lot of renewable energy, wind, and solar power, but it is intermittent. For example, at night, we can’t use solar, but if during the day, we can use extra energy to convert it into something else, like hydrogen, that’s very promising.
Potential markets for hydrogen energy include energy storage, fuel cell for cars, Power-to-X, and industrial (chemical) use. The number of wind and solar farms around the world is growing as nations strive to meet climate targets. They can all be connected to water electrolysis systems.
