Enhancing green hydrogen production through the optimization of electrode materials in PEM electrolysis: a CFD-based methodology

This study investigates the impact of voltage, water inlet velocity, and electrode material selection on hydrogen production efficiency in a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. The electrolysis process was analyzed and simulated using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach in ANSYS Fluent. Tests were conducted on different operational conditions. Results indicate that 3V, 0.050625 m/s water inlet velocity, and anode material of Ruthenium (Anode-an) and cathode material of Aluminum (Cathode-cat) show maximum hydrogen production efficiency. The highest mass flow rates of hydrogen estimated as 0.00456 kg/s for Ruthenium(an) - Aluminum(cat), 0.00455 kg/s for Titanium(an) - Aluminum(cat), 0.00385 kg/s for SS316L(an) - Aluminum(cat) and .00371 kg/s for Aluminum(an) - Aluminum(cat). The Ruthenium(an) - Aluminum(cat) produces 23% more hydrogen compared to the Aluminum(an) - Aluminum(cat) setup, 22.6% better than Titanium(an) - Aluminum(cat) setup, and 15.8% better than SS316L(an) - Aluminum(cat) setup. The present study also shows that raising the voltage above 3 V leads to excessive energy dissipation, resulting in reduced electrochemical efficiency. These results offer a systematic design pathway to improve PEM electrolysis for more efficient green hydrogen production.