Volume 50

A comprehensive 3-D proton exchange membrane water electrolysis cell model: An optimization perspective Liulin Que, Yanyan Huang, Liang Zhang, Jun Li, Dingding Ye, Jian Huang, Xun Zhu, Qiang Liao

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis
(PEMWE) have received great attention for renewable
hydrogen production. In present work, a 3D multi-phase,
non-isothermal cell-level model that consider all the
physical characteristics in water electrolysis, such as
liquid water transport, proton transport in membrane
electrode assembly (MEA), electron transport in solid
electrode, gas diffusion in porous electrodes, water
evaporation, dissolved water transport in MEA and
hydrogen permeation from cathode to anode. The
numerical results show good agreement with
experimental data. The validated model is used to
analyze the effect of key operating conditions on the
voltage losses and efficiency. T0 = 80 °C is optimal for the
full range of operating current densities. However, as
current density increases, lower temperatures become
more beneficial for performance. Performance can be
improved through the development of CLs with good
activity, especially on the anode side. The above findings
provide the characteristics of gas distribution and the
influencing mechanisms of key parameters within the
cell, providing a theoretical foundation for optimal
design of PEMWE.

Keywords PEM water electrolysis, modeling, efficiency, temperature, optimization