High Pressure Water Electrolyser Development for Space Exploration Surface Missions
Authors: Balomenou Stella , Tsiplakides Dimitrios , Papazisi Kalliopi-Maria , Farmaki Maria-Eleftheria , Bimpiri Naouma , Waernhus Ivar , Thambiraj Nelson , Vik Arild , Buergler Brandon , Lamaze Brigitte 
Published: July 2021

Onsite production of oxygen and hydrogen is an essential contribution to any manned mission to the Moon or to Mars. In both environments there are elements consisting of bound oxygen, such as water ice-bearing consolidated regolith on the moon and carbon dioxide on Mars. These resources can be used to generate oxygen gas through electrolysis, together with energy carriers, namely hydrogen and CO, as by-products. Solid Oxide Electrolysis (SOE) technology possesses the highest potential for this application, due to the high operation temperature ranging from, 650°C to 900°C. Therefore, it can split each or both H2O and CO2, into H2, CO and O2 without compromising the integrity of the electrodes by poisoning, while the process can be further integrated with other thermal processes, such as the reduction of mineral oxide to provide overall very high system efficiencies. The solid oxide cell (SOC) technology is also fully reversible (i.e., the cell works both as electrolyser and as fuel cell) and can be used for unitised reversible fuel cell systems (URFCS) for energy storage and generation. This paper describes the developments under a European Space Agency (ESA) activity for the development of a high-pressure steam electrolyser system for exploration surface missions. The base case scenario considered is a hydrogen and oxygen production unit for lunar missions, where water for the electrolyser is generated from ice-bearing consolidated regolith.

The development of the electrolyte supported cells was based in an all-ceramic approach. Specifically, electrolyte (8YSZ, 3YSZ, 6Sc1CeSZ and 10Sc1CeSZ) supported cells were fabricated comprising substituted lanthanum chromite La0.75Sr0.25Cr0.9Fe0.1O3 (LSCrF), as fuel electrode, and (La0.80Sr0.20)0.95MnO3-x (LSM) or (La0.60Sr0.40)0.95Co0.20Fe0.80O3-x (LSCoF), as oxygen electrodes. The electrochemical characterization and performance assessment in button cells (with an electrode footprint of ~0.8 cm2) was conducted for (i) steam electrolysis and (ii) reversible cell operation (fuel cell and electrolysis modes). All cells exhibited stable performance within the whole range of potentials, thus revealing the fact that Solid Oxide technology is in principle reversible and versatile in functionalities. Regarding steam electrolysis, the effect of hydrogen co-fed was investigated. The lack of reducing agent (H2) in the fuel side results in a non-trivial evolution of the current-potential curve, as the Nernst potential is not fixed and the production of a substantial concentration of hydrogen is required for the IV curve to follow the typical linear relation. However, within the linear IV region the performance of the cells is similar in presence or in absence of hydrogen, exhibiting ~2 A/cm2 at 1.5 V.

Following these key developments, a high-pressure short stack is designed and constructed, comprising five (5) cells with an active area of 42 cm2. The stack is enclosed in a hot box consisting of the mechanical and thermal environment for the stack. To operate at pressure up to 10 bars, the hot box is placed inside a stainless-steel chamber made of standard piping elements. The hot box is complemented with all necessary balance of plant (steam generator, water system, gas storage) to realise a complete a steam electrolysis system which will be validated in operation against a load profile representing energy storage in Lunar environment for 3 lunar days (~2,126 h).

Figure 1