Investigating the effect of porous transport layer defects on structural and transport properties in proton-exchangemembrane water electrolyzers

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorTayyem, Abdullah
dc.contributor.authorLefebvre, Victor
dc.contributor.authorKo, Junghyuk
dc.contributor.authorCho, Sung Ki
dc.contributor.authorJang, Jong Hyun
dc.contributor.authorLee, Jason Keonhag
dc.date.accessioned2026-04-21T18:50:03Z
dc.date.available2026-04-21T18:50:03Z
dc.date.issued2026
dc.description.abstractCost reduction of clean hydrogen is of utmost priority to leverage widespread adoption of hydrogen technologies, and porous transport layers (PTL) are known to be a significant cost driver for proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers. This study reveals how the key morphological defects in the PTL that arise during manufacturing process can critically impact the performance of PEM water electrolyzers. A sintered titanium powder PTL was chosen as the baseline configuration for this model, due to its widespread use in commercial PEM water electrolyzers. Stochastic modelling is used to examine defects including thickness variations, positive protrusions, pinholes, porosity variations, cracks, and negative protrusions. Pore network modelling is used to characterize the impact of each defect on the transport properties, including single-phase and two-phase permeability as well as oxygen saturation profiles. Simulation results reveal that thickness variations and positive protrusions are defects that severely affect electrolysis, stemming from poor contact with the catalyst layer. They also significantly reduce single-phase permeability by increasing tortuosity. Furthermore, thickness variations and positive protrusions reduce water’s effective permeability by causing flooding of oxygen gas, preventing reactant water from reaching reaction sites. In contrast, cracks, negative protrusions, and pinholes are defects with minor impact on electrolysis. In fact, they enhance the single-phase and two-phase permeability of liquid water in the through-plane direction. Finally, we suggest an effective remediation strategy for certain defects, which is to simply reorient the defect PTL during cell assembly to mitigate the negative impacts. Implementing these strategies will contribute in reduction of capital costs for PEM water electrolyzers.
dc.description.reviewstatusReviewed
dc.description.scholarlevelFaculty
dc.description.sponsorshipFinancial support from the Canada Research Chairs Program (Canada Research Chair Tier II in Energy Systems Innovation) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2025-03930) are gratefully acknowledged. Support from Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET), through Canada First Research Excellence Fund is graciously acknowledged. National R&D Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by Ministry of Science and ICT (RS-2024-00409901) are also gratefully acknowledged.
dc.identifier.citationTayyem, A., Lefebvre, V., Ko, J., Cho, S. K., Jang, J. H., & Lee, J. K. (2026). Investigating the effect of porous transport layer defects on structural and transport properties in proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers. Energy Conversion and Management, 350, 120988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2025.120988
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2025.120988
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/23658
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherEnergy Conversion and Management
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectwater electrolysis
dc.subjectporous transport layer
dc.subjectdefect
dc.subjectpore network modelling
dc.subjectstochastic modelling
dc.subjectInstitute for Integrated Energy Systems (IESVic)
dc.subject.departmentDepartment of Mechanical Engineering
dc.titleInvestigating the effect of porous transport layer defects on structural and transport properties in proton-exchangemembrane water electrolyzers
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
tayyem_energyConversManage_2026.pdf
Size:
13.87 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.62 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Faculty and Staff Publications
 
University of Victoria Libraries

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.