Experimental Study to Characterize Performance of a Prototype Electrochemical Compressor

Abstract

This paper reports experimental study to characterize performance of a prototype electrochemical hydrogen compressor, provided by Xergy INC. It describes the working mechanism and reports its measured electrochemical efficiency and isentropic compression efficiency. The experimental results demonstrate that the prototype compressor can pump hydrogen flow from 25 psia to 140 psia and deliver the flow rate as theory. The electrochemical efficiency was measured around 40%, and isentropic efficiency around 47%. Using two identical ECC compressors in parallel will reduce the current density and ohm loss, which can increase the isentropic efficiency to 67% with increased cost. Further improvements on the compressor are suggested, e.g. using more conductive membrane, etc.