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ITM Power designs and manufactures hydrogen energy systems based on electrolysis. In the past two years there has been growing interest in storing energy in the form of hydrogen in the natural gas grid which is being called “Power to Gas”. On the gas grid there is a large quantity of unrecovered energy in the form of pressure. In recent years there has been much talk of recovering that energy through turbines. ITM believes that converting that electrical energy to hydrogen will increase the rate of adoption. ITM wish to develop a proposition where energy is recovered from Pressure Reducing Stations and convert that energy to hydrogen and inject it back into the natural gas. This is a self contained and elegant solution that will avoid the need for expensive and large complex electrical grid connections. ITM are actively seeking partners to work on the feasibility for this idea.

Every electrolyser system contains at least one power supply unit (PSU). ITMs products are no exception. The PSUs can be a high cost component of the system (up to 16% of the capital cost), and when not optimised can introduce inefficiencies in the overall system. This project will develop the concepts for and test a basic prototype for a modular power supply unit to provide power to PEM electrolysers for the generation of hydrogen in off-grid, weak grid and grid connected applications allowing DC-DC and AC-DC power conditioning. It will be optimised for electrolyser power ranges, and able to accept grid and/or renewable inputs.

Within electrochemical cells, it is critical to achieve good contact between the catalyst (which produces the gas) and the membrane (which separates the anode and cathode within the cell). ITM Power has a patent covering a novel method of achieving this: catalyst is sprayed onto the walls of a mould, liquid monomers are poured into the mould, cured and the mould peeled away, transferring the catalyst to the membrane. The catalyst is then in intimate contact with the membrane resulting in excellent performance. The concept is simple, but achieving good bonding with the membrane without encapsulating the catalyst took years to develop. Recently, ITM has developed a new catalyst with improved performance and durability, which improves the electrolyser efficiency, however initial indications are that the ink transfer parameters established for the old catalyst do not work with the new catalyst. This project is to investigate the feasibility of utilising the new catalyst within ITMs commercial electrolysers.