Membrane electrode assembly simulation of anion exchange membrane water electrolysis

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) offers a green hydrogen production method that eliminates the need for platinum group metals (PGM) as electrocatalysts. This study employs a COMSOL (R) 6.0 model to simulate a 1x1 cm(2) Ni fibre - Raney (R) Ni parallel to X37-50RT parallel to NiFe2O4 - SS316L fibre AEMWE membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The membrane is set at a thickness of 60 mu m, while the anodic and cathodic porous transport layers (PTL) are modelled with a thickness of 370 mu m, each having an average porosity of 0.70. The half-cell overpotentials are experimentally measured to validate the half-cell model in a three-electrode setup consisting of (working electrode) parallel to AGAR-Ag/AgCl parallel to Pt-wire (counter electrode). Two freshly prepared MEAs validated the (i) base case and (ii) sensitivity analysis models. The base case model validated the MEA results at 20 degrees C and 1 atm in 1M KOH electrolyte feed at 1.56 ml min(-1) cm(-2). The five parameters studied with the sensitivity analysis revealed the most influential parameters based on area-specific resistance (ASR) change in the following order (+ and - indicate increase and decrease in ASR, respectively): KOH concentration (-97%), membrane thickness (+ 9%), temperature (-4%), cathode feed type (<+0.5%), and KOH flow rate (>-0.5%).