IDEA #3YYH7W High Pressure Hydrogen Electrolyzer For Auto And Industrial Applications

APPLICATIONS • • Description Offered electrolyzer design employs a new method of separating the processes of gas (hydrogen and oxygen) liberation in time. Therefore, operation of electrolytic system becomes cyclic, that is, it consists of alternative cycles of hydrogen liberation and oxygen liberation. Separating in time the processes of gas liberation is possible if one of the water electrolysis products is accumulated in an electrochemically active compound found in the electrochemical cell in the liquid or solid phase (active electrode). This does not result in a dramatic change in the volume of this compound, and allows obtaining the second component on the passive electrode in the form of gas without any separating membranes. Then, with polarity reversal, the cycle of the accumulated component liberation takes place on the electrodes. During the processes,, gas pressure can be limited only by solidity of constructional elementsand the threshold of gas solubility in electrolyte. In practice, the actual pressure level is within 70.0 MPa.. The proposed electrolyzer option can ensure production of 5 nm3 of hydrogen per hour under the pressure of 120 atm without using a compressor. Key electrolyzer cost-effectiveness indices are: installation efficiency is 75-80 % power consumption for producing 1 m3 of hydrogen and 0.5 m3 of oxygen is up to 4.3 kW dimensions of the plant: • width 670 mm, depth 560 mm, height 2550 mm. A method has been developed which allows maintaining the activity of electrode materials at a sufficiently high level, and to extend the nomenclature of materials suitable for design of fuel cells. This method involves practical implementation of technology which allows to maintain activity of electrode materials at a specified level by selecting operation regimes which provide for self-regeneration capability of electrochemical systems. Innovative Aspects and Main Advantages The advantage of using a high pressure electrolyzer is that it can utilize non-conventional electric power and accumulate high-pressure hydrogen. So, it can generate electric power by operating as a fuel element. The novel feature of the technology offered is that the reversible electrochemical cell employs a unique regeneration technology allowing to remove the sponge (dissolve or transfer it to an auxiliary electrode), and then deposit it on the working electrodes in the same electrolyte that is used when the fuel cell operates in the standard regime. The proposed system excels other known systems of hydrogen accumulation and use in: • • • technical level simplicity of assembling and service reliability and safety Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Technologies HIGH PRESSURE HYDROGEN ELECTROLYZER FOR AUTO AND INDUSTRIAL Fig. 1. Operating prototype of pressure electrolyze high a Fig.2. Electrode stack Area of Application High pressure electrolyzer is intended for wide use on objects with renewal sources of energy , and also in the industries using hydrogen as the technological product ( chemical, metallurgical, food industries etc.) Generation of high-pressure hydrogen allows to consider developed electrolysis equipment as an element for the infrastructure of automobile hydrogen filling stations. Stage of development Operating prototypes of a high pressure electrolyzer have been developed. The system has undergone laboratory and full-scale tests at SDB “Yuzhnoye”» (Dnepropetrovsk) and in Southern regions of Ukraine, in particular, in Crimea. It is patented. A stand model of electrochemical cell working as fuel cell has been developed. It is patented. Contact details: A.N. Podgorny Institute for Mechanical Engineering Problems NAS of Ukraine Victor Solovey, Professor, Dr.Sc, 2/10 Pozharsky Str., Kharkov 46, 61046 Ukraine Tel. +38(0572) 94-28-11, 95-95-96, 95-95-15 E-mail : solovey@kharkov.ua.