Investigation of the effect of charge transfer coefficient (CTC) on the operating voltage of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer

Activation overpotential is a very important parameter in evaluating the performance of PEM electrolyzer, it is one of the major overpotentials that contribute towards overall operating voltage of the electrolyzer. One of the most significant parameters associated with this overvoltage is charge transfer coefficient (CTC). This study aims to contribute to this growing area of research by investigating the effects of operating temperature and CTC on the overall operating voltage. This study also provides an important opportunity to advance the understanding of the effect of different temperature and pressure on the CTC. The result of this study was successfully compared with experimental data. The simulation result shows that, within the temperature range of 10 degrees C-90 degrees C, the CTC values at the anode electrode ranges between 0.807 and 1.035 while at the cathode electrode, the variation is only within 0.202-0.259. It was observed that activation overvoltage decreases when the CTC increase from 0.1 to 2.0 both at anode and cathode electrodes. Interestingly it was observed that the CTC remains the same even at balanced and unbalanced pressure. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.