Energetic evaluation of high pressure PEM electrolyzer systems for intermediate storage of renewable energies

For hydrogen delivery pressures of up to 40 bar the classical pathways are out-performed by path III. Since the hydrogen is already produced at elevated pressure this eliminates the need for an energy consuming mechanical hydrogen compression and spares the additional energy demand due to the oxygen pressurization. However, with increasing pressure differences the hydrogen back-diffusion strongly decreases the Faradaic efficiency of the asymmetric electrolyzer that has to be compensated by an additional energy supply.