Thermal Spray Coatings to Improve the Efficiency of Alkaline Electrolyzers

Alkaline water electrolysis is one of the most mature technologies used today to produce green hydrogen. As global energy demands increase, and nations move towards renewable energy sources, alkaline water electrolysis has become more prevalent. One of the key steps in moving to a mature green hydrogen economy is to reduce the cost of the produced hydrogen to make it more affordable compared to conventional energy sources. There is a continued effort in the field alkaline electrolyzers to improve their efficiencies and further reduce the cost of produced hydrogen. One way of reducing cost is through the use of non-platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts such as Ni. The work that will be presented demonstrates how thermal spray coatings using non-PGM catalysts can be applied to the cathode and anode plates to improve their catalytic efficiencies resulting in lower overpotentials, higher current densities, and reduced hydrogen production costs.