Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
ELECTROCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF A MEMBRANELESS ELECTROLYZER FOR GREEN HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
Submission Author:
Emerson Barbosa dos Anjos , RJ
Co-Authors:
Emerson Barbosa dos Anjos, Bruno Scaramuzza dos Reis, Samara da Silva Garcia, Caio Mayron de Carvalho Farolfe, Diego Busson de Moraes, Carolina Palma Naveira Cotta
Presenter: Emerson Barbosa dos Anjos
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1787
Abstract
With the increasing world population and the need to produce energy and fuels in a green way, several countries are searching for ways to decarbonize the energy matrix to ensure a sustainable future. In this sense, hydrogen is an alternative to this demand, known as the fuel of the future, due to its ability to store energy and its low molecular weight. However, the hydrogen produced today is mainly (94%) by steam reforming methane, which commonly natural gas is the feedstock. i.e. it is not a renewable process, compromising the decarbonization mission. Thus, an alternative for clean hydrogen production is water electrolysis, which can be coupled with renewable technologies such as hydropower, solar, or wind power. Among existing electrolyzers for hydrogen production, currently, the main one is the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, however, the membrane has some disadvantages, including the need for a rather complex membrane electrode assembly architecture and the risk of device failure due to membrane fouling or degradation in the presence of impurities. As alternatives to the conventional PEM, there is interest in developing electrolysis architectures for which there are no membrane dividers positioned between the O2 and H2 evolution electrodes. These are known as membraneless electrolyzers and generally rely on product flow separation, where forced flow (advection) forces are used to guide the O2 and H2 products before they can cross to the opposite electrode. Thus, the present work aims to experimentally investigate the electrochemistry behavior of membraneless electrolytes in different electrolyte solutions (KOH, NaOH), electrodes (stainless steel mesh, carbon, and platinum titanium), and flow rate (0, 100, 200 ml/min). For the results, the current-voltage characteristic curves were measured by applying a varying potential to the working electrode over time, measuring the current generated in the solution, and the efficiency and specific energy consumption in each scenario. Thus, the present work has shown that this electrolyzer has enormous potential to meet society's clean and efficient fuel generation needs.
Keywords
Hydrogen, Decarboinzation, Membraneless Electrolyzer, Electrochemical
