As ever-increasing amounts of renewable electricity enter the energy supply mix on a regional, national and international basis, greater emphasis is being placed on energy conversion and storage technologies to deal with the oscillations, excess and lack of electricity. Hydrogen generation via proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is one technology that offers a pathway to store large amounts of electricity in the form of hydrogen. The challenges to widespread adoption of PEM water electrolyzers lie in their high capital and operating costs which both need to be reduced through R&D. An evaluation of reported PEMWE performance data in the literature reveals that there are excessive variations of in situ performance results that make it difficult to draw conclusions on the pathway forward to performance optimization and future R&D directions. To enable the meaningful comparison of in situ performance evaluation across laboratories there is an obvious need for standardization of materials and testing protocols. Herein, we address this need by reporting the results of a round robin test effort conducted at the laboratories of five contributors to the IEA Electrolysis Annex 30. For this effort a method and equipment framework were first developed and then verified with respect to its feasibility for measuring water electrolysis performance accurately across the various laboratories. The effort utilized identical sets of test articles, materials, and test cells, and employed a set of shared test protocols. It further defined a minimum skeleton of requirements for the test station equipment. The maximum observed deviation between laboratories at 1 A cm(-2) at cell temperatures of 60 degrees C and 80 degrees C was 27 and 20 mV, respectively. The deviation of the results from laboratory to laboratory was 2-3 times higher than the lowest deviation observed at one single lab and test station. However, the highest deviations observed were one-tenth of those extracted by a literature survey on similar material sets. The work endorses the urgent need to identify one or more reference sets of materials in addition to the method and equipment framework introduced here, to enable accurate comparison of results across the entire community. The results further imply that cell temperature control appears to be the most significant source of deviation between results, and that care must be taken with respect to break-in conditions and cell electrical connections for meaningful performance data. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC.

Fossil fuel power plants are responsible for a significant portion of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and due to concerns over global climate change, finding solutions that significantly reduce emissions at their source has become a vital concern. When oxygen (O-2) is reduced along with CO2 at the cathode of an anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrochemical cell, carbonate and bicarbonate are formed which are transported through electrolyte by migration from the cathode to the anode where they are oxidized back to CO2 and O-2. This behavior makes AEM-based devices scientifically interesting CO2 separation devices or "electrochemical CO2 pumps." Electrochemical CO2 separation is a promising alternative to the state-of-the-art solvent-based methods because the cells operate at low temperatures and scale with surface area, not volume, suggesting that the industrial electrochemical systems could be more compact than amine sorption technologies. In this work, we investigate the impact of the CO2 separator cell potential on the CO2 flux, carbonate transport mechanism, and process costs. The applied electrical current and CO2 flux showed a strong correlation that was both stable and reversible. The dominant anion transport pathway, carbonate versus bicarbonate, undergoes a shift from carbonate to mixed carbonate/bicarbonate with increased potential. A preliminary techno-economic analysis shows that despite the limitations of present cells, there is a clear pathway to meet the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 2025 and 2035 targets for power plant retrofit CO2 capture systems through materials and systems-level advances.

Renewable hydrogen is becoming an increasingly important component of the transition away from fossil fuel use and towards reduction in carbon dioxide production. Hydrogen is the intermediary between primary energy sources and end products in many chemical processes such as ammonia generation, refining, and biogas processing, and is currently mainly produced by reforming of natural gas. Hydrogen from electrolysis can both make a strong environmental impact on these industries and also improve utilization of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by leveraging otherwise stranded resources. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis is especially well suited to energy capture because of the dynamic range and ability to quickly ramp up and down from near zero output to full capacity. This paper will discuss the challenges in continued scale up, translating laboratory scale findings to commercial PEM systems as well as some of recent advancements and impact on cost.

The effect of water flow rate on the performance of a polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyser (PEMWE) was studied using an unpressurised lab-scale (25 cm(2)) cell. The linear polarisation curves obtained showed a voltage increase at higher current densities that increased with water flow rate. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) showed that while lower water flow rates lead to higher cell temperatures and reduced membrane resistance, mass transport losses dominate at high current density. As the water flow is exclusively in the bubbly regime, increase in mass transport limitation is attributed to bubble formation dynamics and reduced gas void fraction at higher water flow rates.

The American Society for Engineering Education administers a postdoctoral fellowship program supported by the National Science Foundation, encouraging PhD recipients to conduct research in small businesses for 1-2 years. This is a relatively new and unique program where the fellow gains valuable hands-on industry experience while simultaneously small companies enjoy PhD-level work at an affordable cost. To date, the official website is the sole source of public information about this program, with very few first-hand experiences described. This paper summarizes the research and professional activities of a postdoctoral fellow working for Proton OnSite, a leader proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis systems. The information will help graduate students make educated career decisions.

An optically transparent polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis cell was studied using a high-speed camera, thermal imaging and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to examine the relationship between flow and electrochemical performance. The flow regime spans bubble and slug flow, depending on the rate of gas formation (current density) and water feed rate. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) shows that there is a reduction in mass transport limitation associated with the transition to slug flow.

As the world transitions away from fossil fuel based energy sources and towards renewable sources of energy in order to mitigate the global energy and environmental crisis, a major part of the energy solution lies in transitioning away from fossil fuels as transportation fuels. Scalable energy storage systems for peak capture, load leveling, and load shifting are also becoming critically important. As discussed in this talk, generation of chemical fuels from renewable power input such as wind or solar is an attractive option vs. other energy storage technologies. Specifically, the case for hydrogen via electrolysis as deployed by Proton OnSite, and application to fueling and energy storage, will be presented.

Proton OnSite's line of commercial products based on proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology is competitive with delivered hydrogen in many industrial gas markets. Proton has demonstrated significant efficiency improvements and cost reductions over the past several years. Still, major advances are required in order to provide a cost-competitive hydrogen source for energy markets. Alkaline exchange membranes (AEMs) offer a potential long term pathway to lower cost electrolysis because they can operate at the high current density and high differential pressure of the PEM while using non-precious metal catalysts and base metal cell materials for low cost. Proton is currently performing on an ARPA-E project in collaboration with Penn State to develop an AEM-based regenerative fuel cell. This paper describes progress to date on the AEM electrolyzer being developed under this effort.

Carbon-free energy generation is a necessity to meet rising global energy needs while minimizing environmental impact. Hydrogen has the potential to be a cost competitive and scalable solution to replace fossil fuels, and water electrolysis is an attractive concept for producing hydrogen with zero carbon footprint when integrated with a renewable energy source. Proton Energy Systems is a world leader in hydrogen generation from PEM electrolysis and has demonstrated the commercial viability of this technology in the industrial gas market, with pathways defined to reach targets in the energy markets. Recent catalyst research at Proton has demonstrated efficiency improvements while maintaining stability. Ongoing collaboration with 3M has also shown feasibility to reduce the catalyst loading by over an order of magnitude vs. current commercial loadings. This paper will discuss Proton's fueling efforts, particularly at high pressure, and advancements in efficiency which enable localized generation of hydrogen where it is needed.

One of the challenges associated with transitioning a transportation economy to any alternative fuel is bringing online fuel production, storage, transportation and end-customer delivery infrastructure at a pace and in the locations relevant to the parallel effort of bringing the related transportation vehicles into the market. In the case of hydrogen as a transportation fuel, the network of fueling stations may include a combination of centralized and de-centralized fuel production. The continuum of centralized to de-centralized production includes massive centralized hydrocarbon fuel processing plants that may number in the tens to hundreds, to neighborhood fueling stations that may number in the tens to hundreds of thousands, to the ultimate de-centralized solution of home fueling stations that may number in the millions. This talk will discuss recent advances in hydrogen fueling demonstrations and lessons learned for the next stage of implementation.

Water based electrolyzers offer a promising approach for generating hydrogen gas for renewable energy storage. 3M's nanostructured thin film (NSTF) catalyst technology platform has been shown to significantly reduce many of the performance, cost and durability barriers standing in the way of H-2/air PEM fuel cells for vehicles. In this paper we describe results from the first evaluations of low loaded NSTF catalysts in H-2/O-2 electrolyzers at Proton OnSite and Giner, Inc. Over two dozen membrane electrode assemblies comprising nine different NSTF catalyst types were tested in 11 short stack durability tests at Proton OnSite and 14 performance tests in 50 cm(2) single cells at Giner Electrochemical Systems. NSTF catalyst alloys of Pt68Co29Mn3, Pt50Ir50 and Pt50Ir25Ru25, with Pt loadings in the range of 0.1 to 0.2 mg/cm(2), were investigated for beginning-of-life performance and durability up to 4000 hours as both electrolyzer cathodes and anodes. Catalyst composition, deposition and process conditions were found to be important for meeting the performance of standard PGM blacks on electrolyzer anodes while using only 10% as much PGM catalyst. Analyses of MEA's after the durability tests by multiple techniques document changes in catalyst alloy composition, loading, crystallite structure and support stability. (C) 2012 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI:10.1149/2.065206jes] All rights reserved.

Water electrolysis has benefits over other hydrogen generation technologies due to the lack of carbon footprint when integrated with a renewable source of energy. Specifically, proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis is a promising technology for hydrogen generation applications because of the lack of corrosive electrolytes, small footprint, and ability to generate at high pressure, requiring only deionized water and an energy source. PEM electrolysis also produces very pure hydrogen, with none of the typical catalyst poisons that may be found in hydrogen produced from reforming. However, significant advances are required in order to in order to provide a cost-competitive hydrogen source for energy markets. This paper will discuss the current limitations and recent work by Proton Energy Systems towards reaching the DOE Hydrogen Program objective for distributed production of hydrogen from distributed water electrolysis of $3.70/gge by 2012.