Pump free alkaline electrolyte membrane water electrolytic device

Abstract

An alkaline electrolyte membrane (AEM) electrolytic device is designed, assembled and evaluated for water electrolysis, composed of an anode for oxygen generation, a cathode for hydrogen generation, an AEM for anion conductive, and two internal water gas separators (IWGSs) for water supplying to the anode and the cathode, respectively, as well as for automatically separation of water and gas produced from the anode or from the cathode. There is no need of pumps for water and gas circulations and no external water gas separators (EWGSs) that are used by conventional water electrolyzers. The corrosive electrolyte is confined in the water containers and will not damage other parts in the electrolytic device. Furthermore, novel multi gas diffusion layers are used to replace the conventional single gas diffusion layer. The pore size is configurable to improve the mass transfer of electrochemical reactions and promote electrochemical reactions.