Abstract
As highlighted by the recent roadmaps from the European Union and the United States, water electrolysis is the most valuable high-intensity technology for producing green hydrogen. Currently, two commercial low-temperature water electrolyzer technologies exist: alkaline water electrolyzer (A-WE) and proton-exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEM-WE). However, both have major drawbacks. A-WE shows low productivity and efficiency, while PEM-WE uses a significant amount of critical raw materials. Lately, the use of anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEM-WE) has been proposed to overcome the limitations of the current commercial systems. AEM-WE could become the cornerstone to achieve an intense, safe, and resilient green hydrogen production to fulfill the hydrogen targets to achieve the 2050 decarbonization goals. Here, the status of AEM-WE development is discussed, with a focus on the most critical aspects for research and highlighting the potential routes for overcoming the remaining issues. The Review closes with the future perspective on the AEM-WE research indicating the targets to be achieved.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e202200027 |
| Journal | ChemSusChem |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 22 Apr 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022 The Authors. ChemSusChem published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
Funding
C.S. would like to thank the support from the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca – MIUR) through the “Rita Levi Montalcini 2018” fellowship (Grant number PGR18MAZLI). C.S. and P.M. would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) through grant “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza – 2017 – Materials for energy”. The authors also thank the Italian ministry MIUR for funding through the FISR 2019 project AMPERE (FISR2019_01294). V.D.N. would like to thank the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 881603 (Graphene Flagship CORE 3). D.R.D.’s work was partially funded by the Nancy & Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) and the French-Israeli Joint Research Project (PRC 2019–2021; MOST and CNRS) [PRC2347] (MOST grant No. 3-15578). F.J.’s work was partially funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement CREATE [721065], and by the French-Israeli Joint Research Project (PRC 2019–2021; MOST and CNRS) [PRC2347]. Open Access Funding provided by Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. C.S. would like to thank the support from the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca – MIUR) through the “Rita Levi Montalcini 2018” fellowship (Grant number PGR18MAZLI). C.S. and P.M. would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) through grant “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza – 2017 – Materials for energy”. The authors also thank the Italian ministry MIUR for funding through the FISR 2019 project AMPERE (FISR2019_01294). V.D.N. would like to thank the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 881603 (Graphene Flagship CORE 3). D.R.D.’s work was partially funded by the Nancy & Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) and the French‐Israeli Joint Research Project (PRC 2019–2021; MOST and CNRS) [PRC2347] (MOST grant No. 3‐15578). F.J.’s work was partially funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement CREATE [721065], and by the French‐Israeli Joint Research Project (PRC 2019–2021; MOST and CNRS) [PRC2347]. Open Access Funding provided by Universita degli Studi di Milano‐Bicocca within the CRUI‐CARE Agreement.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| CREATE | 721065 |
| French-Israeli Joint Research Project | |
| French‐Israeli Joint Research Project | PRC 2019–2021 |
| Italian ministry MIUR | FISR2019_01294 |
| Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca | |
| Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca | PGR18MAZLI |
| Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan | |
| Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique | PRC2347, 3‐15578 |
| Horizon 2020 | 881603 |
Keywords
- anion-exchange membrane
- electrocatalysis
- electrolyzers
- platinum-group metal-free
- water electrolysis
