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Two-phase flow behaviour and performance of polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysers: Electrochemical and optical characterisation

Majasan, JO; Cho, JIS; Dedigama, I; Tsaoulidis, D; Shearing, P; Brett, DJL; (2018) Two-phase flow behaviour and performance of polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysers: Electrochemical and optical characterisation. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy , 43 (33) pp. 15659-15672. 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.07.003. Green open access

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Abstract

Understanding gas evolution and two-phase flow behaviour are critical for performance optimization of polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysers (PEMWEs), particularly at high current densities. This study investigates the gas-bubble dynamics and two-phase flow behaviour in the anode flow-field of a PEMWE under different operating conditions using high-speed optical imaging and relates the results to the electrochemical performance. Two types of anode flow-field designs were investigated, the single serpentine flow-field (SSFF) and parallel flow-field (PFF). The results show that the PFF design yielded a higher cell performance than the SSFF design at identical operating conditions. Optical visualization shows a strong relationship between the flow path length and the length of gas slugs produced, which in turn influences the flow regime of operation. Longer flow path length in the SSFF results in annular flow regime at a high current density which degrades cell performance. The annular flow regime was absent in the PFF design. It was found the effect of flow rate on performance depends strongly on operating temperature in both flow patterns. Results of this study indicate that long channel length promotes gas accumulation and channel-blocking which degrades performance in PEMWEs.

Type: Article
Title: Two-phase flow behaviour and performance of polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysers: Electrochemical and optical characterisation
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.07.003
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.07.003
Language: English
Additional information: © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Polymer electrolyte water electrolyser, Flow-field, Gas-bubble dynamics, Two-phase flow, High-speed optical visualization
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10054077
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