1. Investigation on PEM water electrolysis cell design and components for a HyCon solar hydrogen generator.
- Author
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Fallisch, Arne, Schellhase, Leon, Fresko, Jan, Zechmeister, Martin, Zedda, Mario, Ohlmann, Jens, Zielke, Lukas, Paust, Nils, and Smolinka, Tom
- Subjects
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PROTON exchange membrane fuel cells , *SOLAR radiation , *WATER electrolysis , *ELECTRIC generators , *HYDROGEN production - 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/cm 2 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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