Technology Update - AEM electrolysis

Aldo Gago
Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics
Electrochemical Energy Technology
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
 DLR.de • Chart 2

Contents

• Introduction to DLR

• DLR activities in low temperature electrolysis

• Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) ans KPIs

• DLR Innovations in AEMWE

• EU project NEWELY

• CENmat - A vertically integrated water electrolyser company

• Priorities in AEMWE and advanced material solutions

 DLR.de • Chart 3

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Research Institution Budget
• Aeronautics
• Space Hamburg 
 Neustrelitz
• Transport Bremen   Trauen

• Energy Braunschweig 
Berlin 

 Goettingen
Space Agency  Koeln
 Bonn

Project management agency

Lampoldshausen 
Stuttgart 
Locations and employees  Oberpfaffenhofen
Weilheim 
• About 9000 employees across 33 research institutes
and
facilities at 20 sites
• Offices in: Paris, Brüssel, Washington, Tokyo
 DLR.de • Chart 4

Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics

Prof. Dr. André Thess
approx. 190 staff in Stuttgart, Köln, Hamburg and Ulm
approx. 20 Mio. EUR annual budget with 50% third party funding
„We are the scientific pathfinder for the energy storage
industry“

Department Electrochemical Energy Technology

Prof. Dr. Andreas Friedrich
Research fields and competences
 Electrolysis (AEL, PEM, SOEC)
 Fuel Cells (PEFC, SOFC) Institute of Engineering
Thermodynamics -
 Batteries (Lithium since 2009)
Main building in Stuttgart
R&D Group: Low Temperature
Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel
Cells and Electrolysis
Dr. Aldo Gago
 DLR.de • Chart 5

DLR Activities in Low Temperature Electrolysis:

from Fundamentals to
Megawatt Systems
MW size electrolyser
www.cen-mat.com Laboratory
test stations

Nano-Catalysts

Stack components
Coatings Analytics
and in-situ
diagnostics
DLR.de • Chart 6 > Kick-Off NEWELY > Harmsl > 22.01.2020

Low Temperature Electrolysis Technologies

K. Ayers et al. Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng. 10 (2019) 219–239

DLR.de • Chart 7 > Kick-Off NEWELY > Harmsl > 22.01.2020

Expected AEMEL Performance

for the Next Years in FCH-JU and HGF

AEMEL PEMEL
AEL
3 MEA
Electrode MEA
Packages

For HGF
Voltage / V

2 in 7 years

AEMEL
AEL PEMEL
High
Low Cost
1 2023 Target for AEM Performance
electrolysis

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Current density / A cm-2
DLR.de • Chart 8

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/about-us/key-documents/strategic-research-and-innovation-agenda_en
DLR.de • Chart 9 > AEM NH3 synthesis > Gago/Harms • f-cell > 11.09.2019

Technical Challenge in AEMWE: Membrane

Polymer backbone
Ion activity
Ion conductivity

  F u a
Ion mobility Functional groups

Hoffman elimination

Nucleophilic substitution

• Absence of β-H or β-H cannot rotate to the opposite position of functional groups
• Ammonium groups attached to long carbon chain
• Functional groups with more steric resistance
• Once there is a heteroatom in the main chain, the stability drops dramatically
DLR.de • Chart 10 > Kick-Off NEWELY > Harmsl > 22.01.2020

Technical Challenge in AEMWE: Catalysts

• Water splitting CoPi catalyst: 400 mV @ 1 mA cm-2

in neutral media. Phosphate ensures the long-term
stability but it requires self-healing
• Mn5O8 a very promising oxygen evolution catalyst
when supported on carbon
• Highest cell performance achieved in pure water:
1.85 V @ 400 mA cm-2, with NiFe anode and NiMo
cathode (Xiao et al. Environ Sci 2012;5:7869–71).

McCrory et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137 (2015) 4347–4357. Jeon et al. ACS Catal.2015, 5, 8, 4624-4628
DLR.de • Chart 11 > AEM NH3 synthesis > Gago/Harms • f-cell > 11.09.2019

Plasma-Sprayed, Non-Precious-Metal Electrodes

• Low cost AEM electrolyzer with stainless steel
PTLs and BPP without flow field
• Plasma-sprayed electrodes without any precious
metals.
• Cell with NiAlMo electrodes is able to achieve a
potential of 2.086 V at a current density of
2 A cm-2
• Performances comparable to the performances
of industrial MW size PEM electrolyzers

L. Wang et al. ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2 (2019) 7903–7912.

 DLR.de • Chart 12 > Kick-Off NEWELY > Harmsl > 22.01.2020

NiFe catalyst for AEM electrolysis developed at DLR

• NiFeOOH as a highly active OER NiOOH NiFeOOH
catalyst in alkaline medium
• Fast OER kinetics and is
determined as -Ni(OH)2 phase,
differing from -Ni(OH)2 phase of
NiOOH
• High cell performance and
negligible degradation after 500h
test at 1 A cm-2

L. Wang et al. ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 5 (2022) 2221–2230.

DLR.de • Chart 13

AEMWE in EU - AEM Hub

Goal: to jointly disseminate results and knowledge Activities:

on AEM technology 1) joint dissemination material -> factsheet and
video
Stakeholders: Research and academia, Start-ups 2) join webpage on the three website
and SMEs, Large enterprises 3) joint webinar at the end of Jan 2022
DLR.de • Chart 14

NEXT GENERATION OF ALKALINE MEMBRANE WATER

ELECTROLYSERS WITH IMPROVED COMPONENTS AND MATERIALS
(NEWELY)
• Starting date: 1st January
2020
• Duration: 36 months
• Budget: 2,597,414 €
• FCH-JU contribution:
2,204,846 €
• Call topic: FCH-02-4-2019
New Anion Exchange
Membrane Electrolysers
DLR.de • Chart 15

NEWELY - Objectives
• NEWELY project aims to redefine AEMWE, surpassing the current state of
AWE and bringing it one step closer to PEMWE in terms of efficiency but at
lower cost. The main developments include:
o Stable AEMs and ionomers with ionic conductivity of at least 50 mS
cm-1 in pure water 0.1 M KOH electrolyte
o Highly active non-PGM nanostructured oxygen evolution reaction
(OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts
o MEAs based with pore-gradient catalytic layers with open structure
o Thermal sprayed pore-graded macroporous layers (MPL) on low-cost
mesh-type stainless steel PTLs, to decreae cell overpotential
o 200 cm2 active area AEMWE 5-cell stack with hydraulic compression
technology and output hydrogen pressure up to 40 bar.
• The stack will reach 2 V @ 1 A cm-2 with pure water or 0.1 M KOH
electrolyte feedstock. The targeted performance of the NEWELY prototype
will be validated in a 2,000 hours endurance test with < 50 mV degradation.
 DLR.de • Chart 16

Membrane and binder

Type 1 - based on hydrocarbon backbone with DABCO
functional group
• High OH- conductivity,
• good mechanical stability (60 µm thickness)
• Stability of functional group in KOH
• Developed active binder based on same
chemistry

PSEBS-CM-DBC membrane properties

Fully hydroxide form, demineralised water, 30 °C IC vs time at 30 °C in demineralised water

PSEBS CM NEWELY
Membrane parameter Comment on the next optimisation steps
DABCO target
Tensile stress at break, MPa 3.4 15 Crosslinking; Reinforcement textile
Tensile strain at break, % 436 100 Target was met
IC, S m-1 6.0a 5.0a Target was met
ASR, Ω cm2 0.065 0.07 Increased degree of chloromethylation; Thickness reduction
DLR.de • Chart 17

Membrane and binder Type 2 – based on Orion Polymer

TM1
DLR.de • Chart 18

Scientific production in AEM

DLR.de • Chart 19

Influence of the ionomer

Influence of the ionomer content in the anode Influence of the ionomer content in the cathode
catalyst layer (OER) catalyst layer (HER)

OER-PSBES

OER-PSBES
OER-PSBES
OER-PSBES

Half MEA
 DLR.de • Chart 20

Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA)

MEA @ UCTP
• Exclusively the project materials were used MEA @ CEA
• Average cell voltage of (1.98 ± 0.02) V • Exclusively the project materials were used
at 0.25 A cm-2 over 200 hours experiment
 DLR.de • Chart 21

Stack concept and test station

Test station for AEMWE

- 25 cm² / 200 cm²
- resin water / KOH
- option for NEWELY Stack
New design

Single cell test system

- 25 cm² cell size New AEMWE stack
- ambient pressure - 5 cells
- up to 150 A @ 3 V - 200 cm²
- useable for PEM/AEM - 1 A/cm² @ 2 V
- Up to 2 kW
- 40 bar
DLR.de • Chart 22

Current status of the project

Project Target Target value Achieved now Status approx.

AEMWE stack 2 kW, ≤ 40 bar 0.016 kW, 0 bar 5%

Cell voltage @ current 2 V @ 1 A/cm2 1.74V @ 1A/cm2 >>100%

Stable operation for 2000 h, cell 50 mV Test has not yet started 5%
voltage gap after 2000 h
Chemically, thermally and ≥ 50 mS/cm > 50 mS/cm 100%
mechanically stable AEM membrane … …
with conductivity … Area Specific ≤ 0.07 Ω cm2 0.07 Ω cm2
Resistance
Non-PGM catalyst added overpotential 415 mV 308 mV > 100%
Anode + cathode @ 1 A cm-2 @ 1 A cm-2 @ 1 A cm-2
TEA and LCA demonstrate reduction of Data collection of project 40%
CAPEX and OPEX relative AWE and technologies , AWE and PEMWE
PEMWE reference done
DLR.de • Chart 23

CENmat – A vertically integrated water

electrolyser company
DLR.de • Chart 24

Dissociative Analysis Technique (DAT) –

Material & Component degradation
 DLR.de • Chart 25

Priorities in AEMWE

1. Increase performance/efficiency EMIRI - Prioritization of technology challenges

without compromising lifetime
2. Understand degradation
mechanisms and develop AST
3. MEA – Improve durability of
components (catalysts, ionomer,
membrane)
4. Increase operation temperature by
using more stable AEMs
5. Reduce the use of CRM (Ni)
6. Use stainless steel bipolar plates
(BPP) and porosus transport
layers (PTL)
7. Scale up to MW systems
8. Operate in pure water
DLR.de • Chart 26

Advanced Material Solutions

• Increase chemical stability of AEM and ionomer (attack by OH-, attack by
hydrogen peroxide radicals, Crosslinking in high pH)
• New AEMs with optimized chemical stability (backbone and functional
groups).
• Radical quenching membrane fillers (ceria, zirconia)
• Limited stability of CLs (Insufficient adhesion when using high IEC ionomers,
Detachment caused by low permeability of ionomers compared to PFSA)
• Low IEC, high conductivity ionomers
• Use non-conducting polymers as binder, KOH provides ion conductivity
(requires optimized CL)
• Crosslinking of ionomer in CL
• General CL structure optimisation
• Low conductivity, low mechanical strength, high crossover AEMs
• Better AEMs
• Supported membranes
• Recombination catalysts
• Catalyst activity, catalyst durability and interface resistances
DLR.de • Folie 27

Thank you for your attention

Contact:
Dr. Aldo gago
aldo.gago@dlr.de