A Korean research team succeeded in developing Korea's first water electrolysis stack demonstration technology, which can bring to the commercial level the anion exchange membrane water electrolysis technology that produces green hydrogen without using precious metals.

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​Led by Dr. Sung-mook Choi, the research team in the Department of Energy & Electronic Materials at the Korea Institute of Materials Science developed a full cycle integration technology ranged from non-precious metal catalysts and large-area electrodes to demonstrated water electrolysis stack technology. KIMS is a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT.

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In terms of "Carbon Neutrality by 2050" hydrogen is drawing attention as representative clean energy that replaces fossil fuels. Researchers around the world are actively developing water electrolysis technology to produce hydrogen without emitting greenhouse gases. The anion exchange membrane water electrolysis technology, one of the water electrolysis technologies which is suitable for green hydrogen production, can safely produce high purity hydrogen at low cost since it uses non-precious metal catalysts.

By partially controlling the oxidation limit, the researchers concentrated the adsorption of hydroxide ions(OH-)to the oxide, which reduces the hydrogen generation activity. This process improved the performance of the active metal catalyst and suppressed the elution of metal ion particles at the same time to secure both activity and durability. Beyond the fact that performance and durability-secured hydrogen generation catalyst was developed, the team verified first time in Korea that it can be applied and realized in a commercial-level large-area stack. It can be said that the possibility of practical use has increased.