Novel membranes for Electrochemical Hydrogen Compression enabling increased pressure capability and higher pumping efficiency

Xergy and RPI will develop a novel composite membrane that enables electrochemical hydrogen compression at > 1 kg/hour at 875 bar with an energy consumption of 1.4 kWh/kg, given hydrogen input at 100 bar. Phase I of this research will include synthesis of membrane samples, followed by bench-top evaluation of key performance characteristics, including polarization curves, Tafel plots, and evaluation of performance over time. DOE's target requires development of an anion exchange composite membrane with low electrical resistance, high mechanical strength, and high puncture resistance. Xergy and RPI have recently closely collaborated under two ARPA-E rewards for the development of high-performance ultrathin anionic composite membranes. The base chemistry of these membranes has shown to be flexible and cationic variants have shown high potential in fuel cell systems. The overall project will be investigated using synergistic “Design of Experiments” methodology between Xergy and RPI to generate a response surface for predicting maximum performance ionomer chemistry.