pv4h2

The main pillars of the future sustainable energy system in Lower Saxony and Germany will be the fluctuating renewable sources of wind and solar energy. Renewable hydrogen produced by means of water electrolysis can also provide environmentally friendly energy outside the electricity sector, e.g. for the basic materials industry, for transportation and for the heating sector. Seasonal storage in caverns and reconversion into electricity can bridge “dark doldrums” and enable very high shares of solar energy in the energy mix.

With the pv4h2 research project, ISFH is adding the topic of water electrolysis to its research portfolio. The aim is to support existing research in Lower Saxony in this area and to expand it in an application-oriented manner. This is being done in particularly close cooperation with Leibniz Universität Hannover.

The task of the ISFH within the research project is to evaluate various production and measurement techniques used in photovoltaics for their suitability for water electrolysis research and development. If they are suitable in principle, adapted technological processes as well as scientific models and analysis methods will then be developed to enable direct application in water electrolysis research.

The focus within pv4h2 is on polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis, with three different research tasks being addressed:

1. Coatings of bipolar plates (BPP) and porous transport layer (PTL) to reduce corrosion and contact resistance,
2. Evaluation of thin-film catalysts that are deposited by means of sputtering and lead to a reduction in the amount of catalyst required, and
3. Adaptation and further development of existing measurement methods for the characterization of water electrolyser components.