Investigation of electrolyte forced flow for alkaline water electrolysis using computational fluid dynamics

Green hydrogen production by water electrolysis constitutes a fundamental process for the transition to the hydrogen economy. While alkaline water electrolysis is considered a mature technology to this end, recent work has shown that we can achieve further process intensification with forced electrolyte flow through macro-porous 3D electrodes. The objective of this work is to simulate and analyze electrolyte flow through an industrial-scale pilot and through lab-scale 3D printed electrodes using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Initial results show that our current pilot cell design is inadequate for forced flow and offer insights in order to design a cell structure that is more suited for gas removal.