Conclusion

The global energy crisis has made hydrogen, and its production by electrolysis, one of the major challenges of the coming decade. The European Union has set a target of 20 MT per year of hydrogen production by 2030, and France aims to install 6.5 GW of electrolysers on its territory by 2030. Water electrolysis, which today accounts for 4% of global hydrogen production, is set to gradually become the main means of hydrogen production by 2050.

PEMWE electrolysis cannot be scaled up on such a massive scale, due to the noble materials required. In the short term, it could be replaced by AEMWE alkaline electrolysis, using Ni surface functionalization techniques. This should increase the durability of electrolyzers, while offering a performance and cost compromise between AWE and PEMWE. On precious-metal-free electrodes of the Pt group with a surface area of up to 30,000...