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Physical model and experimental validation of a high temperature proton exchange membrane electrochemical hydrogen pump cell for efficient single-stage extraction of low concentration hydrogen gas.

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Title: Physical model and experimental validation of a high temperature proton exchange membrane electrochemical hydrogen pump cell for efficient single-stage extraction of low concentration hydrogen gas.
Authors: Stansberry, John M.1,2 (AUTHOR), Perego, Andrea3 (AUTHOR), Kulkarni, Devashish4 (AUTHOR), Parkinson, Dilworth Y5 (AUTHOR), Brouwer, Jacob1,2,6 (AUTHOR) jbrouwer@uci.edue, Zenyuk, Iryna V.1,2,6 (AUTHOR) izenyuk@uci.edu
Source: Chemical Engineering Journal. Jul2025, Vol. 515, pN.PAG-N.PAG. 1p.
Subjects: X-ray computed microtomography, Fuel cells, Fuel quality, High temperatures, X-ray imaging, Natural gas
Abstract: • Insufficient and excessive phosphoric acid in electrodes negatively impacts EHP performance. • Separation of low concentration hydrogen (2 % vol) to 99.99 % + purity is demonstrated. • Model and experiments show H 2 purity product purity is enhanced by pressurizing cathode. • HT-PEM EHP is imaged with X-ray CT in operando using custom hardware. There is interest in valorization of existing natural gas infrastructure to facilitate the co-transportation of hydrogen via blending of hydrogen gas initially at limited concentrations of 1–20 vol% H 2 and to subsequently extract hydrogen at fuel cell quality standards (SAE J2719/ISO14687-2). High temperature proton exchange membrane electrochemical hydrogen pump (HT-PEM EHP) based on phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PA-PBI) exhibits good performance at elevated temperatures (>120 °C), which provides desirable tolerance to non-methane natural gas constituents that are problematic for lower temperature based EHP. To better understand the suitability of the HT-PEM EHP for such gas separation processes, a two-dimensional model of EHP based on PA-PBI was developed. The model is validated for several relevant operating conditions and across cells with differing amounts of phosphoric acid content in the electrodes. Operando micro x-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging of an HT-PEM EHP was used to further validate physical parameters and assumptions of the model. The impacts of pressure, relative humidity of the anode feed, and concentration of feed gases on separation performance are investigated. This study shows that a specific energy of separation of 5.1 kWh/kg H 2 at a hydrogen recovery factor (HRF) of 50 vol% can be achieved in a single stage with the EHP, producing fuel cell quality hydrogen purity of 99.99 vol% H 2 from a 2 vol% H 2 /CH 4 feed blend, while pressurizing the product H 2 at a pressure ratio of 1.3 relative to feed pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Engineering Source
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Abstract:• Insufficient and excessive phosphoric acid in electrodes negatively impacts EHP performance. • Separation of low concentration hydrogen (2 % vol) to 99.99 % + purity is demonstrated. • Model and experiments show H 2 purity product purity is enhanced by pressurizing cathode. • HT-PEM EHP is imaged with X-ray CT in operando using custom hardware. There is interest in valorization of existing natural gas infrastructure to facilitate the co-transportation of hydrogen via blending of hydrogen gas initially at limited concentrations of 1–20 vol% H 2 and to subsequently extract hydrogen at fuel cell quality standards (SAE J2719/ISO14687-2). High temperature proton exchange membrane electrochemical hydrogen pump (HT-PEM EHP) based on phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PA-PBI) exhibits good performance at elevated temperatures (>120 °C), which provides desirable tolerance to non-methane natural gas constituents that are problematic for lower temperature based EHP. To better understand the suitability of the HT-PEM EHP for such gas separation processes, a two-dimensional model of EHP based on PA-PBI was developed. The model is validated for several relevant operating conditions and across cells with differing amounts of phosphoric acid content in the electrodes. Operando micro x-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging of an HT-PEM EHP was used to further validate physical parameters and assumptions of the model. The impacts of pressure, relative humidity of the anode feed, and concentration of feed gases on separation performance are investigated. This study shows that a specific energy of separation of 5.1 kWh/kg H 2 at a hydrogen recovery factor (HRF) of 50 vol% can be achieved in a single stage with the EHP, producing fuel cell quality hydrogen purity of 99.99 vol% H 2 from a 2 vol% H 2 /CH 4 feed blend, while pressurizing the product H 2 at a pressure ratio of 1.3 relative to feed pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:13858947
DOI:10.1016/j.cej.2025.163161