Monitoring strategies for hydrogen production through electrolysis
Tutor / Supervisor
Student
Buchholz De La Ossa, Wilhelm
Document type
Bachelor thesis
Date
2024
rights
Open Access
Publisher
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
UPCommons
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in hydrogen production, whether for energy use or for the synthesis of chemicals such as methanol. This has motivated new avenues of exploration for its production, with the aim of countering and reducing greenhouse gas emissions derived from the use of fossil fuels. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the performance parameters of an academic- scale Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. This device employs a membrane that facilitates proton exchange and a solid polymer electrolyte for water decomposition, generating hydrogen and oxygen. Additionally, the project aims to investigate graphical methods for representing voltage and current flow behavior through overpotential equations. Furthermore, this project addresses the analysis of how transient states impact the operation of the electrolyzer, seeking to understand how such variations affect its performance. The most relevant data to consider for this research will be: the applied voltage and current, to generate polarization curves, temperature, and the produced hydrogen, to observe how these values influence the performance of the electrolyzer. In the experimental phase, the equipment used to control temperature consisted of 4 thermocouples for the walls of the methacrylate on both the front and back sides, and 4 Type T thermocouples to measure temperature at the inlet and outlets of the electrolyzer (this new acquisition serves to increase the resolution of measurements compared to the previous work) using a DataLogger. For hydrogen measurement, a study was conducted with an alternative method, but ultimately the predetermined container of the experiment was used. Finally, to record the current and voltage used, the same system as in the previous work was employed. It was found that the polarization curves vary when changing the voltage or current, being more or less equal to the theoretical ones. The expected results were not obtained in the polarization curves at different temperatures, due to problems in the flow of incoming water, which was not adequately heated. A new system for automating hydrogen production measurements has been tested. In the experimental part, the effects of a transient system on temperature have been observed. In this work, a simulation of the polarization curve has been developed, where it was also precisely observed how overpotentials and reversible voltage affect the curves, in addition to being able to compare them at different temperature intervals. A simulation of how temperatures evolve in a transient system and what effect they have was also developed. These simulations have been made possible through Python, using the formulas obtained during the work. Finally, the simulation and experimental parts have been compared to reach a better conclusion about the results.
