Research Advances towards Low Cost, High Efficiency PEM Electrolysis

Water electrolysis has benefits over other hydrogen generation technologies due to the lack of carbon footprint when integrated with a renewable source of energy. Specifically, proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis is a promising technology for hydrogen generation applications because of the lack of corrosive electrolytes, small footprint, and ability to generate at high pressure, requiring only deionized water and an energy source. PEM electrolysis also produces very pure hydrogen, with none of the typical catalyst poisons that may be found in hydrogen produced from reforming. However, significant advances are required in order to in order to provide a cost-competitive hydrogen source for energy markets. This paper will discuss the current limitations and recent work by Proton Energy Systems towards reaching the DOE Hydrogen Program objective for distributed production of hydrogen from distributed water electrolysis of $3.70/gge by 2012.