International Journal of Hydrogen Energy | 2019
Analysis of mass transport processes in the anodic porous transport layer in PEM water electrolysers
Abstract
Abstract In this contribution, the transport processes in the anodic porous transport layer (A-PTL) in proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis are studied in detail. A spatially distributed model of the transport processes in the A-PTL is derived and implemented, which is able to predict stationary saturation profiles and to detect drying-out behaviour at the anodic catalyst layer. The influence of the material properties on the transport limitations is analysed in order to avoid a drying-out of the system. The analysis showed that a suitable PTL material should have a porosity of e 0 > 0.6 , a permeability of, and a contact angle of θ 45 ∘ . It is also shown that a sufficiently high water saturation in the channel of is crucial for the transport behaviour. Additionally, the bulk material properties of a Ti sintered fibre PTL are determined experimentally ( e 0 = 0.75 , k 0 = 6.4 × 10 − 14 m 2 , θ = 30 ∘ ).