INSIDE - In-situ Diagnostics in Water Electrolysers

Kurzfassung

In this joint R&D project supported by the EU Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, an electrochemical in-situ diagnostics tool for the monitoring of locally resolved current densities in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells is adapted to three different water electrolysis technologies: based on proton exchange membranes (PEMWE), on anion exchange membranes (AEMWE), and alkaline water electrolysis (AE). The developed tools allow correlating performance issues and ageing processes with local anomalies. The corresponding mechanisms are investigated with ex-situ analytics. INSIDE consortium: - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Stuttgart, Germany (Coordination, polymer electrolyte membrane based water electrolysis) - NEL Hydrogen AS, Notodden, Norway (Alkaline water electrolysis) - Heliocentris Italy S.r.l., Crespina, Italy (Anion exchange membrane based water electrolysis) - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France (Ex-situ analytics) - Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France (Ex-situ analytics) - Hochschule Esslingen, Esslingen, Germany (Ex-situ analytics) The patented segmented printed circuit board (PCB) for the monitoring of current density distributions in PEM based fuel cells is used and continuously improved for e.g. the investigation of specific mechanisms or systematic optimisation. The embedding of an in-situ diagnostics tool in water electrolysis system enables: - monitoring of performance and local anomalies during operation - revealing systematical deficiencies not detectable with off-line diagnostics - correlating degradation mechanisms and system parameters - identifying and preventing critical operation - systematically improving the efficiency of water electrolysis