Anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis: insights from round-robin testing

Authors
Melissa E. Kreider,
B. Milenia Rojas Mendoza,
Luke Brusse,
Duha Syar,
Minkyoung Kwak,
Patrick Yang,
Hung-Ming Joseph Chang,
Ryan T. Hannagan,
Isabela Rios Amador,
Anthony C. Ekennia,
Nicholas J. Oliveira,
Adam C. Nielander,
Shannon W. Boettcher,
Iryna V. Zenyuk,
Thomas F. Jaramillo,
Shaun M. Alia,
Balasubramanian Lakshmanan
Year of publication
2026
Journal
Frontiers in Energy Research
Volume
14
Starting page
1794912

As research and industrial interest in anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) grows, there is an increasing need for reliable baselines and cross-lab validation of results. The wide variety of material sets and operating conditions under consideration for AEMWE has thus far limited efforts for standardization. In this study, round-robin testing was conducted in deionized water and KOH-based supporting electrolyte by 5 institutions from academia, national laboratories, and industry to provide baseline performance data and identify sources of cross-lab variability. Baseline membrane electrode assemblies were fabricated with commercial catalysts, membranes, and transport layers using standard techniques and tested using reagent-grade electrolytes, aiming for accessibility rather than state-of-the-art performance. From all tests, the average voltage at 1 A/cm2 was 2.72 ± 0.17 V and 1.87 ± 0.03 V in deionized water and 0.1 M KOH, respectively. The maximum in-house and cross-lab variations at this current density were 118 mV and 476 mV in water and 60 and 88 mV in 0.1 M KOH. The KOH purity, station contamination, and temperature control were identified as possible factors affecting performance between labs, with in-house specific variation attributed to sample-to-sample differences in fabrication, cell assembly, and station contamination. This work provides a commercial baseline for the field and highlights the need for improved standardization and reproducibility in AEMWE research.

Funding sources