Effect of hydrogen pressure on the electrochemical hydrogen pump performance

An electrochemical hydrogen pump (EHP) is a promising technology for hydrogen purification and compression, for instance, it can be used in the fusion devises in systems with low and high pressure. This study aims to determine the possibility of using EHP in systems with wide pressure range (reduced pressure in particular). Experiments were carried out on the «Sivka» installation that allows you to set the hydrogen pressure (from 0.01 to 0.3 MPa) in the anode space, perform electrochemical measurements, control the temperature of the electrochemical (EC) cell (from 20 to 90°C). The dependence of the current-voltage curve (IV curve) on the pressure in the anode space and on the temperature of the EC cell was obtained in the work. At room temperature no pressure dependence on the IV curve was found, which indicates the kinetic-limiting regime. As the temperature rises, the IV curve – pressure dependence is observed which indicates the transition of the EC cell to the diffusion-limited (or mixed diffusion/kinetic) mode of operation.