Driven by both policies and shopping malls, the hydrogen energy industry chain has been vigorously developed, which has also driven the rapid growth of hydrogen production. The proposal of dual carbon target makes "green hydrogen" become an important way of carbon reduction and decarbonization. Meanwhile, electrolytic water hydrogen production is an important method to produce green hydrogen, and the improvement of the scale of electrolytic water hydrogen production also makes the electrolytic cell market increase rapidly.

The main reasons for the high production cost of green hydrogen are electricity price and electrolytic water hydrogen production system. Electrolytic water hydrogen production electrolytic cell, as a key equipment for large-scale hydrogen production of renewable energy, accounts for nearly 50% of the total cost of hydrogen production system.

Therefore, hydrogen energy equipment represented by electrolytic cell plays a key role in reducing the cost of hydrogen production. So what is the working principle of electrolytic water hydrogen electrolyzer? Let's take you to understand it.

What is electrolytic water hydrogen electrolytic cell

Hydrogen production by electrolysis with water means that direct current is connected to the electrolytic cell filled with electrolyte, and the water molecules produce electrochemical reaction on the electrode, which can be decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen. The whole process can achieve zero emission.

In the whole production process, the core equipment carrier is electrolytic cell. The general structure of electrolytic cell is composed of three parts, namely tank, anode and cathode.

When the direct current passes through the electrolytic cell, an oxidation reaction occurs at the interface between anode and solution, and a recovery reaction occurs at the interface between cathode and solution.

At present, China's electrolytic water hydrogen production equipment is mostly used in photovoltaic, wind power, renewable energy hydrogen production is the main direction. Meanwhile, alkaline hydrolysis hydrogen production has a low capital cost and has been fully industrialized. It is the first choice for large-scale green hydrogen production, and it is also the most sophisticated method with the most sophisticated skills and commercialization.

What is the working principle of alkaline electrolytic cell

Alkaline electrolysis (AWE), as the most familiar electrolysis technology, occupies a dominant position, especially in some large projects. The diaphragm of alkaline hydrolyzing-hydrogen electrolytic cell is mainly composed of polymer material, which plays the role of separating gas. The cathode and anode are mainly composed of metal alloys, such as Ni-Mo alloy.

Schematic diagram of working principle of electrolytic cell

The principle of alkaline electrolytic cell is that water molecules are decomposed into H+ and OH- at the cathode, H+ gets electrons to generate hydrogen atoms, and further generates hydrogen molecules (H₂). OH- passes through the porous diaphragm under an electric field force between the anode and the cathode and reaches the anode, where it loses electrons to form a molecule of water and oxygen.

The core product of alkaline electrolytic equipment is the electrolytic cell. Before the electrolytic cell, transformers and rectifying cabinets should be equipped to convert high voltage ALTERNATING current into direct current used by the electrolytic cell for electrolytic water use.