Efficient Hydrogen Production from Aqueous Methanol in a Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer with Porous Metal Flow Fields

Abstract

This paper reports the electrolysis of aqueous methanol for hydrogen production in a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer with a novel porous flow field made of sintered spherical metal powder. Results show that the use of porous flow field has a significant improvement in hydrogen production performance compared to a conventional groove flow field. This could be attributed to an increase in effective electrode area by using the porous material which enables the flow field to supply reactant evenly to the electrode and removes products smoothly. Influences of the operating conditions such as methanol concentration and cell temperature on hydrogen production are also discussed.