The synthesis of a Zirfon‐type porous separator with reduced gas crossover for alkaline electrolyzer

The rapid expansion of renewable energy sources presents a great challenge to balance the electric grid due to their intermittent and volatile nature. The surplus energy generation cannot be used or sold so that it is curtailed in order to maintain the grid balance. The excess power can be converted into a gaseous energy carrier, hydrogen via power-to-gas technology. Alkaline water electrolysis can be operated in a dynamic mode using renewable energy sources on a large scale. However, the risk of gas crossover across a porous separator rapidly increases when the electrolyzer operates at a low partial load or at high pressure, leading to efficiency loss and a safety issue. The commercial porous separator Zirfon PERL, which is composed of 85 wt.% zirconia nanoparticles and 15 wt.% polysulfone, exhibits a satisfactory bubble point pressure performance of approximately 2.5 bar and ionic resistance of 0.3 Ω cm2. However, the Zirfon PERL separator exhibits a high hydrogen permeability value of 20 × 10−12 mol cm−1 bar−1 sec−1 due to its large average pore size of 130 nm, resulting in a limited dynamic range of the electrolyzer. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a porous separator with reduced gas crossover. In this study, we synthesize a porous ZrO2/polysulfone composite separator by varying the amount of ZrO2 (75-85 wt.%) via the film-casting method. The 75 wt.% ZrO2/25 wt.% polysulfone composite separator, which contains a low amount of ZrO2, shows a high bubble point pressure of 3.8 bar, a low ionic resistance of 0.3 Ω cm2, and are reduced hydrogen permeability of 4.2 × 10−12 mol cm−1 bar−1 sec−1 compared with that of Zirfon PERL separator. The enhanced performance of this separator is attributed to the reduced average pore size of around 70 nm and high surface wettability with a contact angle of 75°. This result will help alkaline electrolyzer systems be operated as more controllable loads.