Successful 1000-hour endurance run
Hydrocarbon-based electrolysis cell is free of environmentally harmful chemicals and has been running continuously for over six weeks
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Hahn-Schickard, together with partners, has reached an important milestone on the road to scalable, sustainable hydrogen production: the core component of the electrolysis cell, a hydrocarbon-based membrane electrode assembly (MEA) – in technical terminology, the term hydrocarbon is used for hydrocarbons – ran for 1,000 hours in continuous testing with an exceptionally low degradation rate of only 7 µV/h. This rate indicates the power loss in microvolts per hour and thus represents a high level of stability.
Tim Kiefer (Hahn-Schickard) and Dr. Susanne Koch (University of Freiburg) are also drawing on the university's many years of experience in the ongoing development of the Hahn-Schickard test benches.
Hahn-Schickard
The electrolysis test bench was designed and used by Hahn-Schickard in the Electrochemical Energy Systems (EES) department specifically for evaluating the service life of electrolysis cells with anion exchange membranes (AEMs) under realistic operating conditions – as part of the “105°scaled” project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space. This is because high stability is crucial for scaling, especially under demanding operating conditions, such as when operating in alkaline electrolyte. Another advantage for the intended commercialization is that hydrocarbon materials are more cost-effective and resource-efficient than established systems that contain environmentally harmful per- and polyfluoralkyl substances (PFAS) – so-called “forever chemicals.”
Frieder Junginger, project manager at Hahn-Schickard, explains: “Long-term measurements have long been a major hurdle in AEM water electrolysis, especially because hydrocarbon-based membrane electrode assemblies swell more than PFAS materials.” Tim Kiefer, who developed the test rig, adds: “With a long-term test rig specially designed for alkaline environments, we can now reliably characterize these materials and analyze their degradation behavior over 1,000 hours.”
The membrane electrode assemblies used come from project partner ionysis GmbH, which was spun off from Hahn-Schickard and the University of Freiburg in 2021 and develops highly efficient, emission-free, and sustainable core components for fuel cells and electrolyzers. The University of Freiburg is coordinating the project, which will run until mid-2026, and is building a fundamental understanding of transport processes, particularly with regard to safety-relevant hydrogen transfer.
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