High efficiency PEM water electrolysis: enabled by advanced catalysts, membranes, and processes

Hydrogen is a key part of the transition to more sustainable processes, not only as a possible transportation fuel for passenger cars, buses, and heavy duty trucks, but across industrial processes and stationary applications. Renewable sources of hydrogen such as water electrolysis are needed in order to address decarbonisation initiatives. While electrolysis has been developed at scale for both alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM) technologies, the operating and capital costs still need to be reduced for these markets, especially for the PEM systems. The cost has come down dramatically as systems have scaled up in capacity, but additional savings are feasible based on technology improvements and manufacturing advancements similar to the progress made in PEM fuel cells. These improvements involve both material and process development specific to proton exchange membrane electrolyzers.