In the
market there are conventional alkaline electrolysers and advanced poly
mer
me
mbrane electrolysers, with hi
gher perfor
mance, but they are both quite expensive. Indeed, the
materials co
mmonly utilized for water electrolysis in alkaline electrolysers are those based on Raney nickel and their alloys, but these
materials are expensive. Takin
g into account those aspects, the followin
g work ai
ms, as other authors [Olivares-Ra
míreza JM, Ca
mpos-Corneliob ML, Uribe Godínezb J, Borja-Arcob E, Castellanosb RH. Studies on the hydro
gen evolution reaction on different stainless steels. Int J Hydro
gen Ener
gy 2007; 32: 3170–3.
me=""bbib1"">m/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V3F-4SF9C4W-2&_user=10&_coverDate=06 % 2F30 % 2F2008&_rdoc=31&_fmt=full&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info( % 23toc % 235729 % 232008 % 23999669987 % 23692017 % 23FLA % 23display % 23Volume)&_cdi=5729&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=69&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=c50bba53f685ed933164bef0418a795a#bib1"">[1]; Henrique dos Santos Andrade M, Li
ma Aciolia M, Ginaldo da Silva Juniora J, Carlos Pereira
Silvaa J, Oliveira Vilarc E, Tonholoa J, Preli
minary investi
gation of so
me co
mmercial alloys for hydro
gen evolution in alkaline water electrolysis. Int J Hydro
gen Ener
gy 2004;29:235–41.
me=""bbib2"">m/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V3F-4SF9C4W-2&_user=10&_coverDate=06 % 2F30 % 2F2008&_rdoc=31&_fmt=full&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info( % 23toc % 235729 % 232008 % 23999669987 % 23692017 % 23FLA % 23display % 23Volume)&_cdi=5729&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=69&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=c50bba53f685ed933164bef0418a795a#bib2"">[2]], to hi
ghli
ght how it is possible to produce hydro
gen in econo
mical ways usin
g less advanced technolo
gies. A conventional alkaline electrolytic cell, “lab-electrolyser”, has been built usin
g econo
mical
material. It is co
mposed of electrodes of 5.0 c
m×5.0 c
m characterized by a current density of about 250
mA/c
m2 and an efficiency of about 65 % at 55 °C; the cell produces about 2.7 Nl/h of hydro
gen. The overall cost of this devise has been co
mpared with the cost of the electrolysers available on the
market, hypothesizin
g a linear dependence cost with the productive capacity. The conclusion has been that there is a bi
g mar
gin for costs decreasin
g even takin
g into account all the auxiliary syste
ms for an electrolysis process.