Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - 12:10 PM
Low Cost Electrolyzer Technology for Industrial Hydrogen Markets
The study focuses on the technical and economic requirements of the existing industrial hydrogen market. This market consumes over 7 million tons of hydrogen a year in the United States at a value of more than $16 billion.
Liquid water alkaline electrolysis is a well-established technology for the production of hydrogen. Alkaline electrolysis based on nuclear power would bring benefits of energy security, price stability, and greenhouse gas emission reduction in the near term. An infrastructure developed to serve the industrial hydrogen market would also serve any future transportation fuel market.
The capability of alkaline electrolysis to meet the needs of the industrial hydrogen market is evaluated based on GE’s low-cost alkaline electrolyzer technology, which was developed in part under the DOE Hydrogen Fuel Cell Infrastructure Technology program. The GE electrolyzer design features a one-piece molded plastic stack core and high effective surface area, low cost electrodes. Bench-scale and larger demonstrations have been performed, indicating that world-class electrolyzer performance is achievable at capital costs far below the present state of the art.
It is expected that the low cost of nuclear power compared to fossil fuel based generation, combined with the capital cost reductions made possible by the GE electrolyzer technology, will make this method of hydrogen generation competitive with current methods based on fossil fuel reforming.
Acknowledgment: This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award Number DE-FC-0706-ID14789.
Disclaimer: This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.
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