ISRU-Advanced Alkaline Electrolyzer (AAE-BAA)

The In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) - Advanced Alkaline Electrolyzer (AAE) - BAA task successfully demonstrated two objectives outlined by the solicitation: 1) Reducing ISRU water-ice processing requirements for water electrolysis, 2) Reducing required energy to generate 1.1 kg O2/hr. Teledyne Energy Systems Inc (TESI) developed an alkaline-based water electrolysis stack and electrolyzed water into gaseous hydrogen and oxygen with the level of contaminants expected in water produced from in-situ lunar water-ice having no pre-processing to improve water purity. The AAE task used the same lunar water-ice contamination recipe as other ISRU development activities to ensure parity and simplify data comparisons across activities.The test articles demonstrated a substantially reduced set of requirements for processing water collected at multiple exploration destinations by providing an electrochemical component that is much less vulnerable to water impurities. The test campaign empirically determined the technology performance envelope relative to temperature (45ºC to 80ºC), pressure (ambient to 400 psig), electrolyte composition (10% to 35%), catalyst types and water contamination levels. Parallel efforts for evaluating long-term material compatibility with the alkaline electrolyte containing unprocessed ISRU water. Task results indicate that the alkaline technology reduces the electrolysis water processing requirements and increases the available wetted material list relative to proton exchange membrane (PEM)-based water electrolysis. The technology met the energy reduction Objective of 5.6 kW/(kgO2/hr) and the 80% thermal efficiency at 200 mA/cm2. This incarnation of the alkaline technology requires further development to demonstrate the operational life and maintenance-free operation required of surface systems before scaling up the technology to the necessary size for surface operations.

This project advanced two facets of alkaline water electrolysis technologies beneficial to both terrestrial and space applications: improved energy efficiency and reduced water processing requirements.
Improving the energy efficiency at the cell level reduces the input power required to produce each unit of hydrogen and oxygen which minimizes the mass and cost of the supporting power infrastructure. Reducing the water purification requirements for the process water fed to the electrolysis stack decreases system component count, complexity, parasitic power and maintenance requirements. These two improvements result in improved water electrolysis efficiency and reliability at the system level for generating oxygen and hydrogen gases from potentially contaminated local water sources. Fundamentally, this technology does not differentiate between the application is a developing nation striving for a carbon-free Hydrogen economy drawing water from a contaminated river or a lunar outpost utilizing ISRU water-ice for propellants and breathing oxygen. As such, this directly complies with the carbon reduction directives within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by improving access to water for underdeveloped regions interested in participating in the Hydrogen Economy.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.