US 9,518,904 B2 · System and method of quantifying impurities mixed within a sample of hydrogen gas

Abstract

A system and method of taking a sample of hydrogen gas and reducing the hydrogen concentration by a factor greater than 1×108 while increasing the partial pressure of the contaminating gases by a factor greater than 100, so that extremely low levels of contamination can be accurately detected. A sample of hydrogen gas is captured. Only the hydrogen gas is removed leaving all the contaminating gases in the collection chamber. This causes the total pressure of the gas sample within the collection chamber to decrease dramatically since most of the gas was hydrogen. All the contaminants remain in the collection chamber. None are lost through pumping. As such, the concentration of contaminants within the remaining sample increases dramatically. The residual partial pressures of the contaminating gases within the collection chamber and can now be measured by a variety of techniques.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method of determining a concentration level for impurities in a gas sample that is mostly hydrogen, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a hydrogen separator wherein a collection space and a diffusion space are separated by a hydrogen permeable membrane;
filling said collection space with said gas sample, wherein said hydrogen permeates through said hydrogen permeable membrane into said diffusion space, therein providing said diffusion space with a partial pressure of hydrogen;
sweeping said diffusion space with a sweep gas, therein lowering said partial pressure of hydrogen in said diffusion space;
measuring a pressure in said collection space, wherein said pressure is indicative of said concentration level for said impurities in said gas sample;
and
removing said impurities from said collection space by introducing hydrogen into said diffusion space, wherein hydrogen diffuses through said hydrogen permeable membrane into said collection space to displace said impurities.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method of quantifying impurities mixed within a sample of hydrogen gas

Life of this patent

System and method of quantifying impurities mixed within a sample of hydrogen gas

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18