THE HIGH-TEMPERATURE ELECTROLYSIS PROGRAM AT THE IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY: OBSERVATIONS ON PERFORMANCE DEGRADATION

This paper presents an overview of the high-temperature electrolysis research and development program at the Idaho National Laboratory, with selected observations of electrolysis cell degradation at the single-cell, small stack and large facility scales. The objective of the INL program is to address the technical and scale-up issues associated with the implementation of solid-oxide electrolysis cell technology for hydrogen production from steam. In the envisioned application, high-temperature electrolysis would be coupled to an advanced nuclear reactor for efficient large-scale non-fossil non-greenhouse-gas hydrogen production. The program supports a broad range of activities including small bench-scale experiments, larger scale technology demonstrations, detailed computational fluid dynamic modeling, and system modeling. A summary of the current status of these activities and future plans will be provided, with a focus on the problem of cell and stack degradation