High or differential pressure electrolysis cell
AssigneeHydrogenics Corporation
InventorsRami Michel Abouatallah, Rainey Yu Wang, Nathaniel Ian Joos
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Abstract
An electrochemical cell has a membrane located between two flow field plates. On a first side of the membrane, there is a porous support surrounded by a seal between the membrane and the flow field plate. There is a gap between the porous support and the seal at the surface of the membrane. On a second side of the membrane, there is a seal between the membrane and the flow field plate located inside of the gap in plan view. The electrochemical cell is useful, for example, in high pressure or differential pressure electrolysis in which the second side of the membrane will be consistently exposed to a higher pressure than the first side of the membrane.
Claims20
An electrolysis cell comprising,
- a first flow field plate and a second flow field plate;
- a membrane located between the first and second flow field plates, wherein the membrane has a first side and a second side;
- a first porous support between the first side of the membrane and the first flow field plate;
- a first seal surrounding the first porous support, wherein a gap is between the first porous support and the first seal at the first surface of the membrane;
- a second seal between the second side of the membrane and the second flow field plate, wherein at least a part of the second seal overlaps the gap, and wherein the first porous support is incompressible compared to the membrane, the first seal, and the second seal;
- and
- a first catalyst layer located on the first side of the membrane, wherein the first catalyst layer extends to overlap with the second seal on the second side and does not extend towards the edge of the first porous support.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.