Advanced manufacturing alkaline electrolyser cell-stacks for green hydrogen

April 23rd, 2024

&D Focus Areas:
Electrolysis, Advanced manufacturing

Lead Organisation:
The University of Sydney

Partners:
University of South Australia
Swinburne University of Technology
Monash University
entX Global Pty Ltd
Hysata Pty Ltd

Status:
Active

Start date:
March 2024

Completion date:
May 2029

Key contacts:
Professor Antonio Tricoli – antonio.tricoli@sydney.edu.au

Funding:
AUD$2.24 million – Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)

Project total cost:
AUD$5.88 million

Project summary description (as published by ARENA):
The project aims to decrease the cost and improve the scalability and efficiency of alkaline electrolysis by developing roll-to-roll manufacturing technology for the anode-cathode assembly (ACA) using earth abundant materials.

The project will be delivered in two stages, a core research stage (Stage 1), followed by a research commercialisation stage (Stage 2).

  • The core research stage will involve scaling-up manufacturing technology, optimising its use and the ACA material composition and morphology for the membrane-less alkaline electrolyser design, benchmarking the resulting electrolyser performance and producing a techno-economic model for the cost of the alkaline electrolyser and resulting hydrogen cost.
  • The research commercialisation stage will build upon the progress in the core research stage and lead to the industrialisation, benchmarking and commercialisation of the electrolyser manufacturing technology.

The project will achieve the following outcomes:

  • accelerated commercialisation of renewable hydrogen through innovative research and development in alkaline electrolysis technologies;
  • increased academic research capacity in the Australian hydrogen sector, and the facilitation of collaboration between research groups and industry;
  • improvement in the technology readiness and commercial readiness of the resulting alkaline electrolyser fabrication technology;
  • improved capability to fabricate alkaline electrolyser cells at scale through developing a roll-to-roll manufacturing technology for earth abundant, low-cost, efficient and durable electrocatalysts with integrated separator; and
  • a pathway to scaling-up and commercialising the resulting alkaline electrolyser fabrication technology to reduce the costs of green hydrogen production.

Related publications and key links:
https://arena.gov.au/projects/advanced-manufacturing-alkaline-electrolyser-cell-stacks-for-affordable-and-scalable-green-hydrogen-production-project/

Higher degree studies supported:
None at this stage.

 

April 2024