Nuclear Production of Hydrogen, Fourth Information Exchange ...

DEVELOPMENT OF CuCl-HCl ELECTROLYSIS FOR HYDROGEN PRODUCTION VIA Cu-Cl THERMOCHEMICAL CYCLE
Development of CuCl-HCl electrolysis for hydrogen
production via Cu-Cl thermochemical cycle
Yanming Gong, 1 Elena Chalkova, 1 Nikolay Akinfiev, 1
Victor Balashov, 1 Mark Fedkin, 1 Serguei N. Lvov 1,2,3,
1The EMS Energy Institute, 2 Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering,
3Department of Materials Science and Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Abstract
The Cu-Cl thermochemical cycle is among the most attractive technologies proposed for hydrogen
production due to moderate temperature requirements and high efficiency. In the present study, one of
the main steps of the cycle – H 2 gas production via CuCl-HCl electrolysis – was investigated using a
newly designed electrolyser system. The electrolysis reaction was performed with the applied voltage
from 0.35 to 0.9 V. The current efficiency of the electrolysis system was evaluated based on the observed
rate of hydrogen production. The effects of temperature and reagent flow rate on the electrolysis
performance were studied. Several types of anion-exchange and cation-exchange membranes were
tested in the electrolyser, and their performance was compared with respect to process efficiency and
tolerance to copper crossover.
NUCLEAR PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN – © OECD/NEA 2010 251