Germany’s Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wurttemberg (ZSW) has piloted a new electrolyser that could cut the cost of green hydrogen production.
In early 2019 ZSW and its project consortium deployed a research electrolyser for a trial at a commercial power-to-gas (P2G) plant in the southern German town of Grenzach-Wyhlen.
The advanced electrolyser outperformed the plant’s industrial equipment by 20%.
The 300kW alkaline pressure electrolyser’s enhanced performance is due to new electrode coatings that increase power density.
The electrolyser developed in the project also has few parts and is suited to mass production, according to ZSW, helping to drive down the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable electricity sources via electrolysis.
The researchers are now investigating the improved electrode coating’s durability.
Electrolysis plants use electricity to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen.
Seeking to drive down these costs, ZSW and its partners, including the German Aerospace Centre, recently set up a research platform at an industrial 1MW P2G plant on the Upper Rhine river.
Electrolysers account for around 40% of converting clean electricity into green hydrogen, so the gas’s price automatically reflects any upstream savings.
This research initiative is part of a lighthouse project called Power-to-Gas Baden-Wurttemberg launched in November 2018.
The power company Energiedienst aims to operate an electrolysis plant to produce hydrogen on an industrial scale at Wyhlen in the south of the German Baden region.
The commercial plant, up and running on a trial basis since November 2018, can now produce around half a metric tonne of hydrogen a day, enough fuel for more than a thousand fuel cell cars daily trips.
ZSW’s research facility is connected to this plant and also operates under real-world conditions. A neighbouring hydropower plant on the Rhine river supplies the electricity for both facilities.