Differ leads search for better electrolysers

Public-private consortium Scale, spearheaded by research institute Differ, has been awarded 1.25 million euros in NWO funding to develop a new generation of electrolysers. Unlike existing water-splitting technology, these so-called Anion Exchange Membranes (AEM) electrolysers are compatible with intermittent power supply by renewable energy sources, and use cheap and abundant materials.

Small scale AEM electrolysers are available for laboratory tests, but a lot of fundamental questions remain on design, materials and scale-up. “The limitations of these systems under conditions closer to practice are still unknown. Scale will investigate exactly that. Within Differ, we will focus on the design and development of novel electrode architectures and prototypes,” says Differ group leader Mihalis Tsampas.