PEM Water Electrolysis: Preliminary Investigations using Neutron Radiography

Publication date: 2017 Source:Physics Procedia, Volume 88 Author(s): Frikkie de Beer, Jan-Hendrik van der Merwe, Dmitri Bessarabov The quasi-dynamic water distribution and performance of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer at both a small fuel cell's anode and cathode was observed and quantitatively measured in the in-plane imaging geometry direction (neutron beam parallel to membrane and with channels parallel to the beam) by applying the neutron radiography principle at the neutron imaging facility (NIF) of NIST, Gaithersburg, USA. The test section had 6 parallel channels with an active area of 5 cm2 and in-situ neutron radiography observation entails the liquid water content along the total length of each of the channels. The acquisition was made with a neutron cMOS-camera system with performance of 10sec per frame to achieve a relatively good pixel dynamic range and at a pixel resolution of 10 x 10μm2. A relatively high S/N ratio was achieved in the radiographs to observe in quasi real time the water management as well as quantification of water / gas within the channels. The water management has been observed at increased steps (0.2 A/cm2) of current densities until 2V potential has been achieved. These observations were made at 2 different water flow rates, at 3 temperatures for each flow rate and repeated for both the vertical and horizontal electrolyzer orientation geometries. It is observed that there is water crossover from the anode through the memb...
Source: Physics Procedia - Category: Physics Source Type: research