Intermediate Temperature Electrochemical Ceramic Oxygen Generators
- PDF / 1,640,391 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 52 Downloads / 187 Views
K2.9.1
Intermediate Temperature Electrochemical Ceramic Oxygen Generators Agusti Sin, , Antonino S. Aricò1, Laura Gullo1, Daniela La Rosa1, Evgeny Kopnin, Yuri Dubitsky, Antonio Zaopo, Vincenzo Antonucci1 Pirelli Labs, C.2172, Viale Sarca 222, I-20126 Milan, Italy 1 CNR-ITAE Via Salita Santa Lucia Sopra Contesse 5, Messina I-98125, Italy
ABSTRACT In the present work, an electrochemically driven ceramic oxygen generator (ECOG) device is investigated. The present device is based on an electrode supported architecture. Structural and electrochemical characterizations of the electrochemical cell have been carried out. The O2 production rate has been measured showing a performance four times higher than the generally accepted targets for practical applications. The high performance obtained with this device, indicates that there are good perspectives to decrease the O2 production costs significantly decreased as well as small and light weight devices for portable uses are envisaged.
INTRODUCTION Today there is a large number of commercial processes that need pure oxygen, oxygenenriched or oxygen-depleted streams. Examples of industrial uses of oxygen enriched atmospheres include glass making, the petrochemical industry, bleaching for the pulp of paper in the paper making industry, and for cutting and welding in the metallurgical industry. Oxygen is also consumed in small quantities for critical tasks of life support for military, aerospace and medical applications. Oxygen is obtained from air by one of the three conventional processes: the distillation of cryogenic air (for large scale production), pressure swing adsorption and vacuum swing adsorption. The cost of the process depends on the purity required and the production scale. In the present work, a separation process based on an electrochemical ceramic oxygen generation (ECOG) device is adopted. The method of operation is similar to an electrolysis cell and more properly to an electrochemically driven-oxygen pump in which air and electrical power are used to generate pure oxygen. The flux of oxygen produced by an ECOG is directly proportional to the current passing through the cell upon application of a certain voltage. The objective is to achieve maximum current (oxygen generation) with the minimum applied voltage at temperatures as low as possible (≤ 800°C). This approach has distinct advantages with respect the conventional technologies mentioned above. The ECOG devices produce high purity of oxygen (i.e. 100%) in a single operation unit and, as a consequence, the production costs may be significantly decreased as well as small and light weight devices for portable uses are envisaged.
K2.9.2
EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
The synthesis process of all the powder components is carried out by the Acrylamide polymerisation technique [1]. The acrylamide polymerization gel consists of long polymeric chains, cross-linked to create a tangled network, soaked with an aqueous liquid. Polymerization of the gel proceeds in a first step with the combination of an initiator (e.g.
Data Loading...
