A major global challenge for the 21st century is the sustainable provision of the increasing energy demanded by human activity. Green hydrogen, or hydrogen produced from renewable energy resources, is an important contender in the race, making electrolysers a key area of investment for many countries and economies. Electrolysers split water into hydrogen and oxygen, using electricity to do so. Of the three main technologies on the market, anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) combines the benefits of the other two, but it is not yet competitive commercially, in terms of performance.
The EU-funded NEWELY project planned to redefine AEMWE, significantly enhancing efficiency with performance twice as good as the state-of-the-art. The new fuel cell stack aimed to enable a significant reduction in the cost of water electrolysis, boosting the competitiveness of green hydrogen.
OBJECTIVES
Green hydrogen is one of the most promising solutions for the decarbonisation of society. Alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) is already a mature technology but its large footprint makes it inadequate for producing the energy vector at GW scale. Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) on the other hand is compact but its dependence on iridium and other expensive materials poses a serious threat for up-scaling. Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) combines the benefits of both technologies. However, its key performance indicators (KPI) do not reach commercial requirements and are lacking competitiveness.
NEWELY project aimed to redefine AEMWE, surpassing the current state of AWE and bringing it one step closer to PEMWE in terms of efficiency but at lower cost. The three main technical challenges of AEMWE: membrane, electrodes and stack are addressed by 3 small-medium-enterprises (SME) with their successful markets related to each of these topics. They are supported by a group of 7 renowned R&D centres with high expertise in polymer chemistry and low temperature electrolysis. The SMEs and one of the largest hydrogen companies in the world will oversee that the new developments have a clear commercial perspective, placing Europe at the lead of AEMWE technology in three years.
In this period , the NEWELY consortium developed a prototypic 5-cell stack with elevated hydrogen output pressure. It contained highly conductive and stable anionic membranes as well as efficient and durable low-cost electrodes. It aimed to reach twice the performance of the state of the art of AEMWE operating with pure water feedstock only. The targeted performance of the NEWELY prototype was to be validated in a 2,000 hours endurance test. The new AEMWE stack led to a significant cost reduction of water electrolysis having a relevant impact in the cost of green hydrogen.
LINKS
Website: https://newely.eu/
This project has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (now Clean Hydrogen Partnership) under Grant Agreement No 875118. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program, Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe Research
