ABSTRACT
Whereas more than 95% of the hydrogen produced in the world comes from natural hydrocarbons, hydrogen of electrolytic grade produced by water electrolysis is receiving increasing attention because it could be used as a universal and carbon-free energy carrier. Energy applications of hydrogen (as a fuel for the automotive industry or as a means for the large-scale storage of renewable energy sources) are emerging markets. The situation is evolving rapidly and business opportunities are appearing. Among a few technologies of appropriate maturity, the so-called PEM water electrolysis is considered as a very promising one because of its high level of performance and because significant cost reductions are possible. Whereas the capacity of existing commercial products is still limited (approximately to <100 Nm3 H2 h−1), manufacturers are investing to develop production units at the MW scale (~200 Nm3 H2 h−1). This requires the use of larger cell areas (from ~1,000 cm2 with current state-of-art technology to 10,000 cm2). However, their development is not a straightforward task and can potentially be the source of significant performance losses.
