20 April — Large Scale Water Electrolysis and Approaching Fossil Parity
Date: 20 April 2021
Time: 12:00pm EST
Location: via Zoom
Speaker: Kathy Ayers, PhD
Topic: Large Scale Water Electrolysis and Approaching Fossil Parity
Abstract: The need for a sustainable source of hydrogen has been widely recognized, not just as a potential transportation fuel, but to limit CO2 production and fossil fuel consumption from existing industrial processes such as ammonia generation, petroleum refining and leveling electric grid power. In the next 5-10 years, any real impact to the percentage of hydrogen generated from renewable sources will be from existing commercial technologies by necessity, based on current technology and manufacturing readiness as well as demonstrated field reliability. Commercial water electrolysis has been scaled to single systems of ~1000 kg/day, providing a pathway for industrial scale hydrogen generation. Proton exchange membrane based electrolysis specifically also has tremendous potential for continuing cost reduction, leveraging system and manufacturing scaling laws as well as advancements in PEM fuel cell materials, manufacturing, and analysis tools. Making all the components work in concert, and developing manufacturing processes that are compatible with the complete configuration, requires multiple elements to come together simultaneously. Focus on the technical challenges for these solutions is therefore essential to achieve deployment at scale. This talk will focus on pathways to achieving viable costs for hydrogen production via water splitting.
