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High Performance PEM Electrolyzer for Cost-effective Grid Balancing Applications

www.hpem2gas.eu

This project has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 700008. This JointUndertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020research and innovation programme and Hydrogen Europe and N.ERGHY

7th IEA ANNEX 30 Electrolysis Workshop at 3M, St. Paul USA

10-Oct-2017

Laila Grahl-Madsen (EWII Fuel Cells A/S)

Project Coordinator: Dr. Antonino Salvatore Arico (CNR-ITAE)

Exploitation Manager: Graham Robson (ITM Power plc)

Project Manager: Dr. Anna Molinari (Uniresearch)

Duration: 36 monthsStart date: April 2016Total budget: 2.65 M€EC Funding: 2.5 M€EC Contract number: 700008

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Overall project objectives

Next generation water electrolysers must achieve a good dynamic behaviour (rapid start-up, fast response, wider load and temperature ranges) to provide proper grid-balancing services and thus address the increase of intermittent renewables interfaced to the grid

The focus of the project is concerning with the development of a low cost PEM electrolyser optimised for grid balancing service

The activities are addressed to both stack and BoP innovations for an advanced 180 (nominal) -300 kW (transient) PEM electrolyser

The advanced system will be demonstrated in a 6-month field test at Emden in Germany

The aim is to bring the developed technology from TRL4 to TRL6, demonstrating the PEM electrolyser system in a P2G field test

Deliver a techno-economic analysis and an exploitation plan to bring the innovations to market

An advanced BoP in terms of power tracking electronics, high efficiency AC/DC converters, high temperature ion exchange cartridges, advanced safety integrated system, new control logic

Improved stack design (injection moulded components, flow-field free BPP, improved coatings)

Enhanced MEAs and components (Aquivion® membranes, core-shell/solid solution electro-catalysts)

TRL4

TRL6

SLV

CNR-ITAE

ITM

ITM

EWII

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Several strategies are applied in HPEM2GAS to lower the overall cost

thus enabling widespread utilisation of the technology

Three-fold increase in current density (resulting in the proportional decrease in capital costs) whilst maintaining cutting edge efficiency with respect to the state of the art

Material use minimisation approach in terms of reduced membrane thickness whilst keeping the gas cross-over low, and reducing the precious metal loading

Improving the stack lifetime to 10 years with a reduction of the system complexity without compromising safety or operability

Reducing the electrolyser CAPEX and OPEX costs

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

1.8

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100

Time / h

Ce

ll P

ote

nti

al / V

1Acm-280 C

Catalyst

LoadingEfficiency

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

1.8

1.9

2

2.1

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Current Density / A·cm-2

Po

ten

tia

l / V

30 °C40 °C50 °C60 °C70 °C80 °C90 °C

1,000

10,000

100,000

1,000,000

1,000 10,000 100,000

Ca

lcu

late

d l

ife

tim

e [

h]

Test hours @ 1.0±1 A/cm2 & 65±5ºC

Nafion 115

Nafion 117

Experimental MEAs

Single cell test @ ambient pressure & 65±5ºC

EoL criteria: U-Cell = 2 V

EWIICNR-ITAE

CNR-ITAE

Emden’s ambition is to use 100% renewable energy (electricity and gas) by 2030.

Stadtwerke Emden (SWE) is the local supplier for electricity water and gas

Two wind farms have been built in the city of Emden which provides 117% (240 MWh/y) of the electric energy for homes

Photovoltaic panels have been installed on a noise barrier along the motorway

Field testing at Emden (Germany)

Predicted generated

wind electricity for

Emden region, Germany

for a typical week in

January 2020.

Reproduced courtesy of

the University of Emden.

HS EL

Current technical limitations of the local grid at the city of Emden are: Need for utilizing excess wind power in specific periods of the year; Need to address the congestion of transmission; Need to stabilize the electricity grid from frequent fluctuations; Need to implement storage technologies for load shifting, peak shaving and to enhance power quality.

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Field testing in Germany

From Jan-2016 and onwards, subsidies for renewable electricity in Germany will decrease to 0 € if the spot market price for wind power is negative for 6 consecutive hourshttps://www.wind-energie.de/sites/default/files/download/publication/zukuenftige-auswirkungen-der-sechs-stunden-regelung-gemaess-ss-24-eeg-2014/2014-12-11_bwe_sechsstunden-regelung_energybrainpool.pdf

Average excess power produced by SWE on a weekly basis

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Excess power as years’ duration lineAbout 18 month is the length of the evaluation period

Over the observation period of 13,176 hours the electrolyzer will be in operation in 3,529 hours since this is the time where excess power is available

http://www.hpem2gas.eu

Power to electrolyzer as year’s duration line

Due to the high surplus capacities, it is to be expected that the electrolyzer will be operated at full load during periods of excess current, otherwise it will be shut down.

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Project structure

Milestones

Membrane scaling-up andoptimisation completed

(meeting the specifications)

MEMBRANES

Large-batch optimizedelectrocatalysts

meeting the specifications

Overpotentials for OER <200 mV, HER <50 mV IR-free

at 3 A cm-2 with noble metal loading<0.4 mg cm-2 anode

and <0.1 mg cm-2 cathode

Large active area (>415 cm2), thin (<90 µm) membranes with enhanced conductivity (>0.2 S cm-1) and low gas cross over (<0.5 vol% H2 in the O2 stream under differential pressure >80 bar)

ELECTROCATALYSTS

M12

M12

WP3

WP3

SLV

CNR

MS1

MS2

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Milestones

Optimised large area MEAsmeeting the specifications

Membrane-electrode Assembly (MEAs)

75 cells PEM electrolysis

stack meeting the specifications

Stack prototype consisting of 75 cellswith > 415 cm2 active area, operating at a current density ≥ 3 A cm-2

with an average cell potential < 1.8 V (nominal)and degradation <5 µV/h/cell in a 1000 h test.

Performance of 3 A cm-2 at UCell<1.8 V undernominal operation and up to 4.5 A cm-2 under transient operation (UCell<2 V). Total noble metal loading per MEA <0.5 mg cm-2

Stack

M18

M28

WP4

WP4

PEM electrolysis technology validated at 180 kW

system level

System

Electrolysis system with nominal hydrogen production capacity > 80 kg H2/day, efficiencybetter than 82% HHV H2 and energy consumption lower than 48 kWh/kg H2.

M30

WP5

EWII

ITM

ITM

MS3

MS4

MS5

www.hpem2gas.eu

http://hpem2gas.eu/download/public_reports/public_deliverables/HPEM2GAS-D2-1-Protocols.pdf

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The defined test protocols takes point of departure in the HPEM2Gas scenario:

The HPEM2Gas MEA w/Aquivion® membrane and ultra low PGM-content

HPEM2Gas PEM operational conditions e.g. high MEA current density (nominal 3 A/cm2, max 4.5 A/cm2); PH2=80 bar

A 180 kW PEMEC stack with an active area of 415 cm2 and 75 cells

Both stationary and grid balancing system operation is considered

Important feature is the defined AST-protocols – MEAs are considered, but just asimportant is the definition of AST for other stack components!!!

10/5/2017 HPEM2GAS| Presentation 16

Example of testing procedure (cycling) for the electrolysis stack

http://www.hpem2gas.eu cycle

conditioning

baseline

Set of

cycles

Monitorin

g

Overall

procedure

Extended

monitoring

&

evaluation

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10/5/2017 HPEM2GAS| Presentation 17

Example of testing procedure (cycling) for the electrolysis system

preparation

Set of

cycles

Overall

procedure

Monitoring

&

evaluation

http://www.hpem2gas.eu

conditioning

www.hpem2gas.eu

Thank you for your attention