Journey of Splitting H20 into H2+O2

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Journey of Splitting H20 into H2O2 For several
years, hard-to-abate sectors like aviation, steel
and shipping have relied on coal, oil and
natural gas. These hard-to-abate sectors are some
of the largest CO2 emitters globally and face a
challenge of complete Decarbonization. Also
change in environmental and depleting levels of
fossil fuels has led to the need to carry out
research and development of sustainable and
cleaner alternative energy sources. Hydrogen
promises to be an ideal contender in this regard.
There are several means for hydrogen production.
However, hydrogen production by water
electrolysis has a significant position in the
market. Electrolysers are the devices that
generate hydrogen and oxygen by splitting water
through the application of electricity. The
process is simple and produces high level of
pure gas without emitting pollutant gases into
the atmosphere. It is the most used method for
hydrogen generation. Electrolyser consists of
several electrolytic cells stacked in series.
Each electrolytic cell is made up of hydrogen
and oxygen gas generating elements through which
water flows on passage of low voltage direct
current. Electrolytic cells are primarily made of
two types namely, mono- polar and bi-polar. In
the mono-polar design, the electrodes are either
negative or positive with the parallel
electrical connection of the individual cells,
while in the bi-polar design the individual
cells are linked in series electrically and
geometrically making it the most preferred
option for electrolyser manufacturers. Bi-polar
cell design is more compact than mono-polar
systems leading to shorter current paths in the
electrical wires and electrodes. This reduces the
losses due to the internal Ohmic resistance of
the electrolyte and therefore, increases the
electrolyser operational efficiency. Widespread
use of the alkaline electrolyser has been
hindered due to its poor efficiency. Also, bulk
manufacturing of bi-polar electrolytic cells is
technically challenging, time consuming and
expensive. At present, research and development
needs to be focused mainly on the realization
of long-lasting materials to extend the lifetime
and the performance of electrolysis stacks.
Reduction in system complexity also remains a
major challenge. Existing electrode coating seems
to be improper leading to higher power
consumption. Current cell designs are not guided
thus longer stacking becomes a challenging task.
Also, non- guided stack design requires higher
attention and skill. Existing designs do not
address foaming
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issues appropriately leading to cell drying and
temperature related issues. Metallic outer frame
manufacturing of the electrolyser is a tedious,
costly, time-consuming and non-efficient process.
Hence, efforts towards simplified and low carbon
manufacturing technique of bi-polar
electrolytic cell could bring attractive benefits
to this global green mission. BRISE Bi-Polar
Electrolyser addresses some of these issues
offering a reliable and affordable Bi-polar
electrolytic cell with an outer frame having
better resistivity to electrical current,
thermal conduction at the outer surface and
operates at lower risk. Non-metallic molded
outer frame reduces manufacturing cost and time
thereby improving production efficiency as below
tabulated. Overall, less time and effort are
required for manufacturing and assembly of the
bi-polar plate with the outer frame.
STACK Performance STACK Performance STACK Performance STACK Performance
Loading 33 66 100
Current ( A) 500 1000 1500
Current Density (A/ m2) 2000 4000 6000
Electrolytic Solution Concentration (NaOH ) 23 23 23
Electrolysis Temp(?C) 80 80 80
Voltage(V) 1.66 1.98 2.05
Hydrogen Purity (NABL certified) gt99 gt99 gt99
DC Power Consumption (Kwh/nm3 of H2) 3.9 4.1 4.4

• Life of BRISE Electrolyser
• Our electrodes Based material is Pure Nickel with
  Catalytic coating and With reference to NACE
  Paper 13297, table 4, Mass loss due to corrosion
  is 0.7 micron/year at 80C, even if we
  considered plane electrode made up N06625 with
  100 micron thickness then life of the electrode
  will be easily 20 year at 80C operating
  temperature with wt. 25 concentrated Alkaline
  solution at 30barg in oxidizing environments.
• Similarly way our SS316 Bi- polar plate coated
  with nickel life span will be 20 year
• Having said that life of coating in both the
  cases will be more then 15 year and after that
  stack will keep running with pure nickel
  electrode.

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• Gaskets may need to replace after every 5 year if
  leakage are identified and membrane need to
  replace after 10 years
• All other system components bought out such as
  pump valves are designed with SS316 which are
  in contact with alkaline solution with design
  life of 25 years.

Source- https//www.brisechemicals.com/renewable-e
nergy-green-hydrogen- electrolyzer/