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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8731-7445

Date Available

4-29-2027

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME)

College

Engineering

Department/School/Program

Mechanical Engineering

Faculty

Michael Renfro

Faculty

Jonathan Wenk

Abstract

The need for renewable sources of energy in today’s society is as prevalent as ever, as the harmful side effects of fossil fuels become more evident. As a result, research into renewable energy sources has become a growing need to begin the transition process into cleaner forms of energy. This paper looks at alkaline water electrolysis, which involves the splitting of water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen components, from which the hydrogen can be stored and used in fuel cells to generate green energy. By altering 4 characteristic parameters of alkaline water electrolyzers, several trends can be identified relating to the polarization of the alkaline water electrolyzers. By using a computational fluid dynamics setup along with a supplementary experimental set up, polarization plots can be obtained and analyzed to identify the trends. As each of the characteristic parameters increases, the polarization of the electrolyzers decreases. This can then be analyzed to obtain relationships between rate of resistance change and cell voltage, which can provide a very broad understanding into creating the most efficient energy sources, which can ultimately be a valuable step in research towards cleaner energy sources for future generations of humans.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.151

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