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Design of gas channels for an electrochemical compressor.

Number: pap. 1479

Author(s) : BAKER J., HWANG Y., WANG C.

Summary

The fundamental mechanisms behind electrochemical compression have long been understood. However, only now is this technology coming to fruition. The electrochemical compressor offers several key advantages over traditional mechanical compressors. Its lack of moving parts eliminates energy losses due to friction and reduces noise. Electrochemical compression of hydrogen has already been realized at scale, but its usefulness is generally limited to fuel cell applications. A major obstacle to useful electrochemical compression lies in the design of the gas distribution and collection channels, which supply to and collect gases from an ion exchange membrane. Here, we present a method for improving the gas channels using computational fluid dynamics to analyze the distribution of gas for different channel geometries. Several designs, including conventional fuel cell as well as nature-inspired geometries, were evaluated to determine which design is most effective for the electrochemical compressor. We conducted these analyses using performance data determined empirically from previous ammonia compression experiments and the known material properties of the ion exchange membrane. The results indicate a nature-inspired distribution network is likely to improve the compressor performance.

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Pages: 9

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Details

  • Original title: Design of gas channels for an electrochemical compressor.
  • Record ID : 30024361
  • Languages: English
  • Source: 2018 Purdue Conferences. 24th International Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue.
  • Publication date: 2018/07/09

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