A variety of operational factors current density, voltage fluctuations, transient and variable loads, water purity, and internal electrolyser conditions, impact the durability and stability of alternative electrolysers deployed in large scale green hydrogen projects.
Alkaline and PEM systems are currently the leading two electrolyser technologies being installed in an increasing number of projects. Alkaline, the more mature industry standard has high stack lifetimes of up to 80,000 hours, while PEM has lifetimes within the 30,000-60,000-hour range.
However, there is uncertainty around the durability and longevity of electrolysers at scale, particularly given that these will be subject to frequent intraday and seasonal load changes associated with linkage to variable renewable energy (VRE) sources, as shown in the figure below.
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