Increasing the size of electrolysis cells could cut the cost of producing green hydrogen by up to 15pc, a Danish researcher claims. The breakthrough could make large-scale green hydrogen production viable within this decade, says Anne Lyck Smitshuysen, who has been awarded €67,000 ($75,530) by a foundation owned by Copenhagen-based engineering, architecture and consultancy company Ramboll.

“Through my research, I have shown how to increase the size of electrolysis cells from 150cm² to 1,000cm² without breaking the cells during construction. That is roughly equal to upscaling the quadratic cells from the size of a piece of toast to the size of a computer screen,” says Lyck Smitshuysen.

Because electrolysis cells are thin and delicate, they often curl at the edges during production when they are heated to 1,300°C, rendering them unusable.

“I realised that by using a 3D-printed cast to mould the cells in a way that corresponds to the shrinkage caused by the heating process, the size of the cells could be increased by 500pc,” says Lyck Smitshuysen.

The breakthrough could accelerate power-to-X production by as much as 15 years, adds Soren Hojgaard Jensen, CEO of electrolyser startup Dynelectro, where Lyck Smitshuysen is working on her PhD.

“Lyck Smitshuysen’s invention is a technological breakthrough in power-to-X research which will have a tremendous impact on the future production of green hydrogen,” adds Robert Arpe, chairman of the Ramboll Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

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Author: Stuart Penson