Improved performance of electrodes for alkaline electrolysis

Abstract

Years of research, decades of experience, and an array of new ideas have led the Norwegian company, HydrogenPro, to invest in the establishment of the Danish plating company Advanced Surface Plating (ASP). ASP is focusing on the development and production of high-performing nickel foam electrodes for alkaline electrolysis based on electroplating. The plating line was designed in Q1–Q2, 2021, installed in ASP’s premises in Aarhus during the summer of 2021, commissioned in August the same year, and pilot production was initiated in Q4. Currently, the industrial-scale plating line has an annual capacity of approximately 16.000 m electrodes based on individual plating of 1 × 1 m electrodes. HydrogenPro’s modularised 5.5 MW alkaline electrolyser units are based on an inside diameter of 188 cm circular electrodes with each unit containing 424 bipolar plated and 426 anodes and 426 cathodes. The total weight of each unit is more than 80 tons (transport weight empty of liquid). Figure 1, below, shows HydrogenPro’s standardised 5.5 MW unit under commissioning at HydrogenPro’s test facilities in Porsgrunn, Norway. Figure 2 shows the ASP plating line equipped with in-house waste-water treatment, allowing ASP to recycle rinsing water, thus minimising the overall water consumption. The premises at ASP allow for a potential increase of the production capacity by a factor of four, corresponding to a total annual production capacity of 64.000 m electrodes equivalent to an alkaline electrolysis capacity of nearly 500 MW pa. Besides the fully automatic plating line, ASP has established a research platform with all necessary infrastructure for supporting further development of new and superior electrodes for hydrogen and oxygen formation. This includes a chemistry laboratory with R&D-plating facilities (targeting an electrode area of 10 × Figure 1. HydrogenPro’s modularised 5.5 MW unit commissioned in Q4 2022 – Q1 2023 at HydrogenPro’s test facilities in Porsgrunn, Norway (Image courtesy HydrogenPro).