Water treatment

for green hydrogen

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Reprinted from Hydrogen Tech World magazine Oct 2022

By Henrik Tækker Madsen,

Application Development Manager
Silhorko-Eurowater – A Grundfos Company
Water treatment for green hydrogen
– What you need to know
Water is essential for production of green hydrogen and as the market matures,
crucial questions about the use of water are starting to arise: How much water
is needed? Which quality is sufficient? And where should the water come from?
Let’s shed some light on these essential questions.

Henrik Tækker Madsen, PhD, is a water treatment specialist working within the interplay between
water and energy. He heads the work of establishing industry-leading knowledge within many water
applications, including electrolysis. Dr. Madsen is a chemical engineer with more than 10 years of
experience in business development, sales, R&D and innovation.

To have a qualified discussion about Add to this, that each of the ions One strategy that electrolyser
use of water for green hydrogen, we and molecules in water will affect manufacturers can follow to simplify
first need to define what we mean the electrolyser differently. Some the issue is to set the requirements
when we say “water”. can increase OPEX because of for conductivity sufficiently low to
corrosion or increased need for ensure that the concentration levels
In the production of green hydro­ cleaning, while others can lower of problematic ions and molecules
gen, it is necessary to distinguish the electrolyser efficiency and/or will in all certainty be below the
between three types of water: irreversibly damage and degrade electrolyser requirements. A good
the electrolysers. starting point can be <1 µS/cm for
• Ultrapure water (used as standard alkaline electrolysers1, and
feedstock for the electrolyser) With so many variables and effects, < 0.1 µS/cm for PEM electrolysers
• Cooling water it is no surprise that water treatment and alkaline electrolysers1 relying
• Raw water is often tailored to the specific on advanced electrodes. However,
project, making it very difficult to it is worthwhile to remember
The quantity of ultrapure water come up with a unified standard for two things: 1) water treatment
used for electrolysis will be water quality for all electrolysers. constitutes a relatively minor part
different from that of raw water
extracted from the environment
and the quality of ultrapure water
and cooling water is also different. How much ultrapure water to produce H₂?
Therefore, we need to deal with
each one separately. Let’s first look
at ultrapure water.

What is ultrapure water?

Water suitable for electrolysis is 9 kg 1 kg

commonly called ultrapure, but
what is to be understood by this
Electrolysis of 9 kg ultrapure
label?
water results in 1 kg hydrogen.

Several parameters influence

what quality water must have to ©Silhorko-Eurowater A/S

be suitable for electrolysis. These

include the type of electrolyser, Figure 1 The 1:9 rule for consumption of ultrapure water in green
electrode material, system design hydrogen production.
and even brand of electrolyser.
1
Many will say that 5 µS/cm should be the limit for standard alkaline electrolysis, but my experience from the market today is that we
see a trend towards higher requirements for water quality also for alkaline electrolysis.
of the total CAPEX of a hydrogen we need to look at the electrolyser are based on dry cooling, while
plant and 2) no electrolyser was power rating (MW). The power the very large electrolyser systems
ever damaged by using water that rating will determine the rate at currently in planning may seek to
was too clean. Ensuring high which hydrogen is produced and integrate the waste heat into other
quality and reliability in the water thus the rate of water consumption. water-based infrastructure systems
treatment may thus be the best The amount of ultrapure water such as wastewater treatment plants
investment to be made for an needed per MW depends on how and district heating systems. Also,
electrolyser system. much energy the electrolyser needs offshore based systems may rely on
the use of seawater for cooling.

How much ultrapure water per MW electrolyser? For the projects where a water-
based cooling system is chosen,
the specific design of the cooling
solution will determine the water
usage. For an evaporative cooling
tower relevant parameters include
the starting water quality, the
ratio between conductive and
Electrolyser evaporative cooling, drift ratio,
1 MW and concentration factor. All these
Ultrapure water Electrolyser factors make it complicated to
0.2 m/h 1 MW come with an accurate number,
but to get a first estimate a good
©Silhorko-Eurowater A/S rule of thumb is that 400 L/h of
cooling water is needed per MW
Figure 2 Rule of thumb for consumption of ultrapure water per MW
electrolyser, or roughly twice the
electrolyser capacity.
amount required for electrolysis.

Consumption of ultrapure to convert the 9L (kg) of ultrapure It is important to have in mind

water water to 1 kg of hydrogen. Most that cooling water and water for
electrolysers consume 45-55 kWh electrolysis will have very different
We can accurately calculate the per kg hydrogen, which means quality requirements.
amount of ultrapure water required that 0.16-0.2 L of ultrapure water
for production of green hydrogen, are required per kWh or 163-200 Consumption of raw water
using the atomic composition of L/h of ultrapure water required per
water, H₂O. Since oxygen is 16 MW electrolyser capacity. To determine the impact of a
times heavier than hydrogen, it is green hydrogen system on the local
responsible for 89% of the mass In my experience 200 L/h has water systems, it is necessary to not
of water, which means that 9 L of proven to be an excellent rule of only focus on the consumption of
water is needed to produce 1 kg thumb as a first estimate of the ultrapure water, but also on how
of hydrogen (Figure 1). This ratio requirements for ultrapure water much water must be taken from
can be quite useful to determine (Figure 2). Thus a 10 MW plant the raw water source to produce the
the water requirements for a needs 2 m3/h and a 1 GW plant ultrapure water.
specific production capacity of needs 200 m3/h of ultrapure water.
hydrogen. For instance, production Water can come from many sources.
of 100,000 tons of green hydrogen Consumption of cooling For most of the smaller projects
per year will consume 900,000 m3 water seen today, water from the drinking
(tons) of ultrapure water. water network is used. However, as
While the consumption of ultrapure hydrogen plants increase in size, this
This approach tells us how much water as feedstock will always be approach becomes unsustainable,
water is needed on average, but it part of a green hydrogen facility, and water must be sourced from
will not tell us about the rate of it is more difficult to give a precise elsewhere.
water consumption (m3/h), and evaluation of the consumption of
this is required for dimensioning cooling water. Many of the smaller The three most common raw water
the water treatment system. Here projects that are realized today sources for large scale hydrogen
 process is brought up for discussion,
especially when talking about
How much water for 1 m ultrapure water? seawater desalination. However, it is
important to remember that while
water treatment must overcome
the attractive forces between water
1.4 m 1.5 m 3.3 m molecules and ions, electrolysis
Groundwater Treated wastewater or Seawater must overcome the strong covalent
surface water
bonds between the atoms in the
water molecules. As seen in Figure
4, turning seawater into ultrapure
water may require 3-4 times as
1 m 1 m 1 m much energy as groundwater and
Ultrapure water Ultrapure water Ultrapure water treated wastewater, but it is still
ready for electrolysis ready for electrolysis ready for electrolysis
only around a thousandth of the
©Silhorko-Eurowater A/S
energy required for electrolysis.

Figure 3. Raw water quantities required for production of ultrapure Production of ultrapure water
water for electrolysis
The process from raw water to
projects are: Groundwater, treated With these rules of thumb ultrapure water can be divided into
wastewater and seawater. From the numbers, it is possible to quickly two overall steps:
perspective of a water treatment estimate the water requirements for
system, surface water from rivers a given hydrogen project. The same • Pretreatment of raw water
and lakes will in many ways be electrolyser designed to produce • Polishing to ultrapure water
similar to treated wastewater and 100,000 tons of hydrogen will
these can therefore be considered require 900,000 m3 of ultrapure The role of the pretreatment system
as one. water and will need to extract is to make the raw water suitable
1,200,000 m3 of groundwater, as a feed source for the polishing
Each type of raw water will require 1,300,000 m3 of treated wastewater system. This means bringing the
different water treatment systems, or 3,000,000 m3 of seawater. water to a state where it resembles
and this affects how much raw city water quality. The type of
water must be extracted. Of these Often concerns about the energy pretreatment system depends on
you need to extract the least raw consumption of the water treatment the source of water as each will
water using groundwater and most
when using seawater, see Figure 3.
Extraction of treated wastewater
will be similar to groundwater. Electrolysis and water treatment: Power usage

The differences stem from the

recoveries that can be obtained in
the initial pretreatment of each raw Energy required for Energy required for
water source before it is polished to purifying 1 m water electrolysis of 1 m of
ultrapure quality. For groundwater for electrolysis. water.
standard filtration can reach very
high recovery values, >98%.
Treated wastewater filtered with
ultra­filtration will typically have a
Treated
slightly lower recovery of 90-95%. Groundwater wastewater Seawater Electrolysis
For seawater desalination, recovery 2 kWh 2.2 kWh 7 kWh 5000 kWh
is normally limited to 40-50% due ©Silhorko-Eurowater A/S
to increasing osmotic pressure.
The treatment to ultrapure quality
Figure 4 The energy required to produce ultrapure water from different
comes with its own recovery, raw water sources.
typically 75%.
 How is water treated for green H₂?
Groundwater Chlorinated Treated wastewater or Seawater
city water surface water

Sand filtration and Activated carbon UF-filtration and UV Desalination

aeration

Polishing
Softening Demineralisation Degassing EDI/mixed-bed

Ultrapure water
ready for electrolysis

Figure 5 Overview of the water treatment train from raw water to ultrapure water suitable for electrolysis.

come with their own challenges. To remove the bulk of the ionic free option, a membrane degasser can
Groundwater contains dissolved load RO is used. The membrane be installed after the RO membrane.
redox active species such as iron blocks ions, molecules and particles Alternatively, lye can be does in
and manganese that can precipitate and will therefore also remove front of the membranes to convert
in and clog the polishing system. organics (TOC) and silica. To reach CO₂ to bicarbonate ions that can
These can be effectively removed sufficiently low concentrations it is be removed with the RO system.
using aeration and sand filtration. often necessary to employ a double To reach the very low conductivities
For treated wastewater the primary pass RO system, where the permeate required by many electrolysers, it is
concern is particles, organics, and from the first RO process is filtered necessary with a final deionization.
microorganisms. Here ultrafiltration again in a secondary RO system. For Here either a mixed bed filter or an
in combination with UV can be the RO system to operate properly, electrodeionization (EDI) unit can
used to bring the water to a suitable the water must first be conditioned be used. These processes will take
quality. Seawater primarily requires to avoid scaling and damage to the any remaining ions and exchange
removal of salts, but also particles membranes. If there is free chlorine them for H+ and OH- ions. The
and dormant microorganisms. in the water, this must be removed mixed bed must be regenerated or
Using standardized reverse osmosis using active carbon, to avoid exchanged once spent while the
(RO) desalination is sufficient. oxidation of the selective layer of the EDI can operate continuously due
membrane. Hardness due to ions to a self-regenerating design. Often
Once the raw water has been such as Ca and Mg can cause scaling the two deionization technologies
pretreated, we need to address and limit the recovery rate. This can will be employed together with the
the following issues to turn it into be handled by either using a softener mixed bed placed as a “police filter”
ultrapure quality: that will exchange multivalent after the EDI.
ions with Na or by dosing in an
• Content of ions – conductivity antiscalant that will stop the scaling Figure 5 illustrates this general
• Hardness process. RO membranes do not stop process configuration, while Figure
• TOC dissolved gasses such as CO₂. These 6 (next page) shows an example of
• Silica must therefore be removed with a such a system.
• Gasses dedicated process. For a chemical
 Two processes are available for
handling the side stream polishing:
mixed bed ion exchange and EDI. In
this application EDI is limited due
to operational temperatures and the
fact that it produces a concentrate
waste stream. Mixed beds are the
preferred option because they allow
for zero waste of water and a higher
flexibility in meeting the process
requirements of the electrolyser
system.

The side stream loop should be

dimensioned to remove con­
taminants at a rate equal to or
higher than the release rate to avoid
accumulation in the electrolyser.
Figure 6 Frame mounted water treatment system for production of The release rate is complicated to
water suitable for electrolysis (<0.1 µS/cm). This system has a capacity of
estimate as it depends both on
1-2 m3/h equal to an electrolyser capacity of 5-10 MW.
material choices in the process
equipment and the electrolyser
Case – Everfuel contaminated with metal ions from as well as operating conditions.
the piping and process equipment Typically, the flow of the polisher
As a specific example of water as well as ions and organics from loop will be in the range of 2-10 %
treatment for green hydrogen we the electrolyser stack. These of the anode circulation flow rate.
can look to the HySynergy project contaminants must be removed to The higher the percentage, the
by Everfuel. This project contains 3 maintain the lifetime of electrolyser. higher quality of the water sent to
phases: 20 MW (2022), 300 MW the electrolyser will be.
(2025) and 1 GW (2030) and seeks The way to solve this problem is
to provide green hydrogen for both to introduce a side stream polisher
mobility and industrial end users. internally in the electrolyser on the
For the first phase, an alkaline anode circulation system.
electrolyser was chosen requiring a
flow of ultrapure water of 4.5 m3/h
with a conductivity <5 µS/cm. The
water was sourced from the drinking
water network with a hardness of
11 °dH and no free chlorine. In this
case the quality criteria could be
met using a double pass RO system
combined with CO₂ removal and
with an ion exchange softener in
front of the RO membranes to
ensure very low concentration of
multivalent ions.

Internal polishing of water

For electrolyser systems like PEM

and AEM operating directly on
ultrapure water, water treatment
does not stop with the make-up
water. After entering the electrolyser Figure 7 Water treatment system for the 20 MW HySynergy project.
system, the water is continuously
But what about the pumps?

Finally, we must also address the How much pump capacity is needed?
need for pumping and the effect
it has on water quality. Pumps are
used in several places in electrolyser
systems, but the most central role is
for circulation over the electrolyser
stack. Large amounts of heat are
released during electrolysis, and to
maintain an acceptable temperature Electrolyser
1 MW
differential across the stack, very
Feedwater Circulation
high flow rates are required. To keep
the temperature increase between 0.2 m⁄ h 50 - 100 m⁄ h
2-4 °C a flow rate of 50-100 m3/h
©Silhorko-Eurowater A/S
per MW is required. That means that
the flow rate is 250-500 times larger
than the flow of make-up water into Figure 8 Pumping requirement for circulation of ultrapure water over
the electrolyser system. Because of the electrolyser stack .
this, pumps take up a significant part
of the CAPEX for a green hydrogen
system, 10-20% of the combined approach and think water treatment hydrogen plant, water treatment
CAPEX for stack components and in combination with pumping. By systems will also face important
balance of plant, and this presents improving the polishing system, it questions about scalability, modu­
operators with a difficult challenge. can overcome the release of metals larity, redundancy etc. as the
The cost of pumps pushes for cost and thus lower the requirements for industry matures. Figure 8 shows
effective solutions, but the strict the pumps used for recirculation. an example of how such large scale
quality requirements as well as the installations could look like.
harsh operating conditions pushes Looking ahead, it is clear that water
for high quality and specialized treatment will play an essential role
products. Part of the solution to for the green hydrogen industry, and
this challenge is to adopt a holistic like the other components in a green

Figure 9 Modular water treatment solution for a 300 MW electrolyser.