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Local research centre provides R&D expertise for water electrolysis

15th April 2022

     

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Hydrogen South Africa’s (HySA’s) Centre of Competence (CoC) at North-West University (NWU) has created a vertical line of expertise in water electrolysis (WE) that allows flexibility and adaptability for the dynamic hydrogen business in South Africa and for the use of local platinum group metal (PGM) sources.

“Key advantages include access to local PGM resources and African markets, as well as local expertise by HySA CoC NWU,” says director of HySA CoC and NWU Professor Dmitri Bessarabov.

Proton-exchange membrane (PEM) WE companies, up until recently, have been servicing traditional markets such as the metallurgy and electronics manufacturing industries.

However, with the recent acceleration of green hydrogen projects adopted for other markets, the target is at gigawatt scale.

New markets include various large-scale industrial applications, energy storage and sustainable mobility for the rail and maritime sectors. 

Bessarabov says the small to medium-size PEM WE technology will suit South African markets of lab gas generators, State-owned power utility Eskom power cooling systems, unmanned aerial vehicle refuelling systems, rail transportation, automotive refuelling and rural energy storage.

Most research and development (R&D) for PEM WE focusses on the increase in current density and durability, reduction of costs and components, balance of plant (BOP) and improving safety operations.

Further, cost and efficiencies advancements are still feasible for PEM electrolysis technology.

“For example, HySA CoC’s analysis suggests that a reduction in membrane thickness of over 50% and a reduction in catalyst loading of over 90% is also feasible. BOP/systems parts integration and BOP improvements further present significant avenues towards cost-efficient technology development,” says Bessarabov.

Moreover, he says the cost of green hydrogen largely depends on the cost of renewable electricity, hence, the cost reduction to $0.02 per kilowatt-hour electricity at utility-scale photovoltaic solar would make the cost of green hydrogen more competitive.

“While current electrolyser developments have targeted hydrogen production at pressures from 350 bar to 700 bar, careful attention must be paid to trade-offs between the electrolyser system capital costs, operating costs and system reliability.”

Further, diagnostic evaluation and testing of individual components, unit cells and stacks, amongst other developmental needs, should be conducted to produce an electrolyser that is low-cost, light weight and has a lifespan of up to 100 000 hours.

Hence, Bessarabov says fundamental understanding of relationships between steady-state and transient performance, as opposed to durability and associated ohmic losses, is required.

Electrolysers are designed to operate under steady-state conditions and their transient characteristics have a significant impact on the efficiency of the energy conversion process.

“Efficient scale-up of a unit cell and stacks, another area of concern, will reduce a number of parts per stack and will reduce installation costs,” he adds.

HySA CoC NWU has over 55 combined years of experience in the area of PEM technology and WE development whereby peer-reviewed publications, books, book chapters, know-how, supply chain and components have been developed.

HySA NWU focusses on R&D activities driven by product needs through technology development and demonstration.

Bessarabov concludes that these products are identified through understanding the sectors that the CoC is involved in and through the expertise of himself and his team.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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