Separation and compression characteristics of hydrogen by use of proton exchange membrane

Fuel cells (FC) can produce electricity through electrochemical reaction of hydrogen with oxygen with the use of a membrane and electrode assembly (MEA). In other words, the hydrogen pressure difference between the anode and cathode can produce electricity via an electrochemical process. Conversely, when we supply electricity to MEA from an external power source, we can pump up or separate hydrogen from the low pressure anode to the high pressure cathode according to the principle of the “concentration cell”. The depleted hydrogen from the FC can be recovered by the hydrogen separation pump proposed herein, or low pressure hydrogen can be pumped to high pressure hydrogen by the hydrogen compression pump proposed herein. In this study we preliminarily tested the hydrogen separation pump and hydrogen compression pump, and demonstrated their good performance. The tested performances were analyzed with the use of our simulation model of a hydrogen pump, which was made by modifying our FC simulation model, and the test results agreed well with the calculated results.