Electrochemical performance analysis of a PEM water electrolysis with cathode feed mode based on flow passage shape of titanium plates

• Published in: International journal of precision engineering and manufacturing Vol. 17; no. 8; pp. 1073 - 1078
• Main Authors: Tugirumubano, Alexandre, Shin, Hee-Jae, Go, Sun-Ho, Lee, Min-Sang, Kwac, Lee Ku, Kim, Hong-Gun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Korean Society for Precision Engineering 01-08-2016
• Subjects: Engineering; Industrial and Production Engineering; Materials Science; Titanium plate; Water electrolysis; Numerical simulation; Cathode feed mode; Performance
• ISSN: 2234-7593; 2005-4602
• DOI: 10.1007/s12541-016-0130-9

A polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis, where the water is supplied to cathode, was presented in this study. For water feeding and electric collection, four holed titanium plates were designed with different shape of holes which are either circular or square for a chosen spacing. Depending on plate design, a numerical analysis of PEM electrolyzer cell was performed under stationary study, and the results were compared on polarization curve. The results revealed that, at the same operating conditions the plate with square shape of holes could result in lower cell voltage than the circular shape. Moreover, the more the holes are close to each other, the better is the cell performance. The best suitable ratio between the holes and non-opening area was found to be approximately 2:1. The impact of operating temperature on the best optimum plate design indicated through simulation that the increase of operating temperature lead to the reduction of cell overpotential, and as the temperature rises, the voltage difference gets larger with the increase of current. The optimized design of titanium plate was validated with experimental study, which showed very good agreement with simulation results for current above 1A.