Study the effect of lye flow rate, temperature, system pressure and different current density on energy consumption in catalyst test and 500W commercial alkaline water electrolysis

In order to analyze the controlling factors affecting the performance of Alkaline water electrolyzer, an experimental test was carried out in this study, the lye flow rate, temperature, system pressure and different current density varied in different operating conditions. Besides, the Catalyst test was also tested to study the effect of temperature and lye flow rate on the voltage. The results showed that (1) The lowest electrolysis potential is shown in Catalyst test at 200 rpm; (2) Form the aspect of total hydrolysis test, with increased temperature, the better the catalyst activity, what is more, the optimal lye flow rate was found to get minimum voltage; (3) in general, the voltage decreased with the increased temperature and decreased pressure, under the 30 °C, the maximum decreasing extent reached up to 1.3%, moreover, the decreasing extent reached up to 1.28% at the 60 °C; (4) with the increased lye flow rate, the voltage turns down, but the decreased extent turns small, for example, when the lye flow rate changed form 71 L/h to 198 L/h, the change extent of voltage is only 0.025 V. The experimental data can be used to analyze the influence of different operating conditions on the performance of electrolyzer and to improve or optimize.