The durability and lifetime of the proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is directly affected by the current distribution (CD). Uniform CD indicates uniform electrochemical reaction and vice versa. CD of PEMWE is affected by many factors, such as flow field patterns, catalyst particle distribution in the catalyst layer, and the contact between different components of PEMWE, especially between the bipolar plates and the current distribution plate. The mechanical properties of the bipolar plate such as the ductility and bristliness might affect the current distribution significantly. In this work, the CD is measured at the cathode side using S⁺⁺ setup, where the segmented plate is placed between the current distributor and bipolar at the cathode side of the PEMWE cell. The segmented plate consists of 100 segments over the 50 cm², thus each segment area is 0.5 cm². Two different materials (graphite and Titanium) for the bipolar plates are used in this work, to investigate the effect of bipolar plate mechanical properties on the CD of the PEMWE.

Initial results show that, the PEMWE with titanium flow field plate has shown a non-uniform CD at higher clamping pressure, and a more uniform CD at lower clamping pressure. Meanwhile, the PEMWE with graphite flow field plate has shown a highly uniform CD at higher torque and a less uniform CD at lower torque. Also, it is concluded that higher PEMWE cell performance not necessary means more uniform CD over PEMWE active area.