STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF ELECTROLYTE CONCENTRATION ON ALKALINE ELECTROLYSIS AND ION EXCHANGE MEMBRANE WATER SPLITTING FOR PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN

Biswajit Mandal, Amalesh Sirkar, Parameswar De, Sunil Baran Kuila

Abstract: The rate of hydrogen production increases with increase in concentration of potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide solution as an electrolyte. It can be attributed to the increase in electrical conductivity of the solution due to increase the KOH and NaOH concentration in the solution. Maximum 3 (N) concentrations of both electrolytes were investigated within the same range of applied DC voltage. KOH solution as electrolyte showed 14.77% higher performance than NaOH solution in terms of hydrogen production rate at extreme conditions within the present limits of investigation. Effect of concentration of NaOH on electrolysis was comparatively better than KOH solution within the same range of concentrations (0.01–3.0 N). Investigation on membrane water splitting resulted enhancement of hydrogen production rate from 1.33cc/min to 5.69 cc/min using amide membranes of different composition ranging from 25–75 % acrylamide content in chemically modifying polyvinyl alcohol matrix with poly(Acrylic acid-co-Acrylamide)

Keywords: Alkaline Electrolysis, Membrane Electrolysis, Electrolytic Hydrogen, Concentration Effect, PEM Water Splitting.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0513002