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Effects of electrolyte temperature and voltage input on thehydrogen production rate of a polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzer


Muhammad Syazwan Iman Mohd Razman Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia Wan Ahmad Najmi Wan Mohamed Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia
Abstract
This paper analyses the limiting effects of temperature and voltage on the hydrogen production rate and Faraday efficiency of a single-cell Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer that operates without an active membrane humidity control. The analysis is based on the problem of identifying the optimal operating conditions for the system setup mainly due to membrane dehydration that leads to ohmic losses. The experiments are conducted under controlled laboratory conditions for distilled water temperature variations (25 to 50°C) and input voltage variations (1.8V to 3.6V). The key outputs are hydrogen production rate and Faraday efficiency. The results indicate that the MEA humidity is normal up to 45^oC, but the hydrogen production kinetics loss is 14% at 50^oC due to membrane dehydration. The potential loss due to membrane humidity at the manufacturer limit of 60^oC is estimated at 16% through data regression approach. However, operating the electrolyzer at room temperature gives a strong performance relative to voltage variation where the Faraday efficiency is between 84 to 95%. The evaluation indicates that the PEM electrolyzer operation is optimally balanced for hydrogen output, energy input and system safety operations between 25 to 40^oC and a voltage between 2.4 to 3.0V.
Keyword: Hydrogen, PEM Electrolyzer, Faraday Efficiency, Electrolyte Temperature, Voltage Input
DOI:10.24191/esteem.v22iMarch.9858
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