AEM electrolyzers are inexpensive and do not require critical materials. So far, however, they have only been available in the 1 kW range. A German-Canadian project now wants to make them suitable for large-scale hydrogen projects.
Eine Membran wird für die Beschichtung vorbereitet.
Fraunhofer IFAM Dresden [M]
In hydrogen production, operating and investment costs could be significantly reduced in the coming decade by the large-scale introduction of anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysers. The consortium of the Integrate funded project, which includes Fraunhofer IFAM and the hydrogen company Sunfire, as well as the Canadian partners Ionomr Innovations, the National Research Council of Canada, and Simon Fraser University and the University of Alberta, is convinced of this. However, the AEM technology is so far only available in the single-digit kW range and thus cannot be used for large-scale hydrogen projects in the industry.
As part of the three-year project, the partners now want to create the conditions for transferring the technology from the laboratory to industrial application. One focus of the project is the development and testing of long-term stable, high-performance catalysts made of metals that do not belong to the platinum group for use in dilute alkaline environments. In addition, porous transport layers (PTL) are to be optimized.