Lukas Roessler Escudero, Viktor Hacker, and Merit Bodner
Sulphur depolarized electrolysers (SDE) represent an innovative technology for hydrogen production, offering a more energy efficient alternative to traditional water electrolysis (WE). By using SO2 as the anodic feed, SDEs lower the theoretical potential to 0.158 V, compared to 1.23 V in WE. This process also utilizes toxic SO2 waste gas, producing H2SO4 as a by-product. A critical challenge is preventing SO2 crossover, which can poison the catalyst. In this study, we evaluate and define boundaries for the operational parameters of an SDE, showing significant improvements in current stability during continuous operation under optimized voltage and gas flow rates.