Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5147304 | International Journal of Hydrogen Energy | 2017 | 10 Pages |
Abstract
Hydrogen as a secondary energy carrier promises a large potential as a long term storage for fluctuating renewable energies. In this sense a highly efficient solar hydrogen generation is of great interest especially in southern countries having high solar irradiation. The patented Hydrogen Concentrator (HyCon) concept yields high efficiencies combining multi-junction solar cells with proton exchange (PEM) membrane water electrolysis. In this work, a special PEM electrolysis cell for the HyCon concept was developed and investigated. It is shown that the purpose-made PEM cell shows a high performance using a titanium hybrid fiber sinter function both as a porous transport layer and flow field. The electrolysis cell shows a high performance with 1.83 V at 1 A/cm2 and 24 °C working under natural convection with a commercially available catalyst coated membrane. A theoretical examination predicts a total efficiency for the HyCon module from sunlight to hydrogen of approximately 19.5% according to the higher heating value.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemistry
Electrochemistry
Authors
Arne Fallisch, Leon Schellhase, Jan Fresko, Martin Zechmeister, Mario Zedda, Jens Ohlmann, Lukas Zielke, Nils Paust, Tom Smolinka,