(Invited) Electrochemical Hydrogen Compression

The company HyET pioneers Electrochemical Hydrogen Compression (EHC) with strong focus on advancing our rate capability and energy efficiency for compression and simultaneous purification.  Additional advantages over mechanical pumping are:  isothermal compression vs. adiabatic, no moving parts, instantaneous, variable pump rate, included metering, and bi-directional control (de-/compression). 

Previously, HyET demonstrated a compression record showing pressures as high as 100MPa are feasible in one single stage using EHC. Simple scalability of the ‘active’ membrane area enabled us to produce stacks with a pumping capacity around 2 kg per day. Stand-alone systems are designed in ongoing JTI funded programs containing multiple parallel stacks and delivering up to 100 kg per day upon request.

Only hydrogen gas is transported through the solid, proton-conducting membrane through conversion at the catalysed membrane surface according to the following reaction equation:  H₂ = 2 H⁺ + 2 e^-

Other gases that may be present in the mixture stay behind because these cannot follow this pathway.

Proprietary membranes have been developed at HyET to minimise passive permeation of all gases. The primary reason is the reduction of hydrogen back-diffusion, which goes at the expense of the energy efficiency. Secondary, our bespoke membranes automatically show better selectivity towards hydrogen and deliver enhanced purification ability, especially in combination with positive pressure differential. 

This presentation will provide insight in EHC working principles, current abilities and potential solutions made available for building a viable hydrogen infrastructure, enabling market application such as:

• Automotive (Home) refuelling
• Distributed energy storage from sustainable supply
• Harvesting from impure hydrogen gas sources
• Hydrogen injection and selective extraction from natural gas pipelines