Abstract
Water electrolyzers are today of worldwide strategic importance for the deployment of green hydrogen as an energy carrier, and the ultimate integration of stochastic renewable energies into the electrical grid at scale. Targets for the total cost of ownership of hydrogen have been constantly revised, but values around $1 to $2 per kilogram of H2 are generally accepted to reach parity with other energy conversion and storage strategies. However, further advancement of electrolyzers while maintaining durability and robustness of its cell/stack components is still needed. This can only be accomplished through focused research and development efforts that address efficiency, degradation, and cost aspects of the technology.
A growing number of research groups are starting to participate in this development with key contributions in the form of fundamental and material advances. However, the high deviation of reported results as well as the complex history the tests performed, and components used have shown that this growth creates challenges that hinder the development of trust in the test results generated. Moreover, such lack of trust ends up hampering the overall progress and leads to wasted allocated resources. Contributors to the HydroGEN Advanced water splitting Materials, Energy Materials Network; and H2-New programs funded by the Department of Energy in the USA; aligned with efforts by the International Energy Agency (IEA) within the Electrolysis Annex 30 are conducting a benchmarking effort: 1) to develop methods to identify reference hardware, cell components, and materials; and 2) to harmonize testing protocols and enable the meaningful comparison of performance across the community.
In this presentation, the latest results of this effort will be presented. The talk will also include updates on current strategies among the different teams, round robin testing results, protocol development and fine tuning of test parameters and material specifications. This effort should finally lead to the creation, validation, dissemination, and adoption of accelerated test protocols that can ultimately contribute to conducting collaborative studies on cell and stack degradation.