HYWALHY

The Hy-walHy project proposes to develop magnetically-enhanced alkaline water electrolyzers (AWE), on which LEPMI and LPCNO have recently established a proof-of-concept. The magnetic enhancement is due to the local transformation of a high-frequency alternating magnetic field (AMF) into heat using magnetic nanoparticles. LPCNO developed a novel magnetically-responsive catalyst consisting of 15 nm nickel-coated iron carbide nanoparticles (FeC@Ni). LEPMI designed a cell to perform electrochemical measurements under AMF and demonstrated that magnetic heating dramatically enhances the activity of the FeC@Ni catalyst for AWE. To pursue this effort, the project will be organized according to two approaches: nano-engineering and multiphysics engineering, to tackle the technological issues associated to the innovative concept. On the (nano)materials’ side, large-heating-power nanoparticles, that exhibit good durability in operation and generate low reaction overvoltage, will be developed; on the engineering side, efforts will be focused on designing electrochemical cells and adapted inductors to minimize the amount of energy required to generate the magnetic field, and enhance the overall process efficiency. The objective of the project is to attain 1 A cm^-2 with less than 500mV of electrode overvoltages using only non-PGM catalysts.

1. Niether, Christiane; Faure, Stéphane; Bordet, Alexis; Deseure, Jonathan; Chatenet, Marian; Carrey, Julian; Chaudret, Bruno;, Alain Rouet;, Improved Water Electrolysis Using Magnetic Heating of Core-shell FeC@Ni Nanoparticles; Nature Energy Nature Energy, volume 3, pages476–483 (2018) Nature