Membraneless Electrolyzers for Renewable Fuels and Chemicals

This project will involve the design and development of novel membraneless electrochemical devices for the conversion of electrical energy into chemical energy. These electrolyzers are very important for a clean energy future because they can use electricity generated by renewable solar or wind resources to produce storable chemical fuels such as hydrogen. This project may be modeling or experimental in nature, focusing on the design of devices, their incorporation into a system, and/or fabrication of devices, and evaluation of their performance. Conventional electrolyzers rely on membranes, which are costly and can be prone to failure. The goal of the project is to develop new electrolyzers based on flow-through electrodes that do not require membranes, and therefore have potential to have substantially lower cost than conventional electrolyzers. Experimental efforts will involve additive manufacturing for rapid prototyping, fabrication of electrodes, in situ high speed video analysis, and/or the use of electroanalytical methods to evaluate device performance under different operating conditions and electrode configurations. This project will require basic knowledge in electrochemistry and chemical engineering principles.