Research and control of the purity of production hydrogen with a high degree of purification when applying the electrolysis method of production

• Main Authors: Valeriy Nikolsky, Olga Oliynyk, Viktor Ved, Olena Gnatko, Andrii Pugach, Iuliia Bartashevska
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: PC Technology Center 2018-02-01
• Series: Eastern-European Journal of Enterprise Technologies
• Subjects: electrolysis installation; degree of purification; concentration of technical hydrogen; impurity; chromatography; digital filtering
• Online Access: http://journals.uran.ua/eejet/article/view/124085
• ISSN: 1729-3774; 1729-4061

We conducted experimental studies aimed at determining the purity of hydrogen obtained at the electrolysis installation made by Hydrogen Technologies (Norway) at the pipe plant Centravis Production Ukraine in the city of Nikopol, Ukraine. It was established that the determination of hydrogen purity and the degree of its purification from impurities (nitrogen) in microconcentrations involves two stages of measurements: − research into the presence of nitrogen in the samples of production hydrogen in the microconcentrations of [[N2] 0.001−0.01 % (rough estimate); − research into the presence of nitrogen in the samples of production hydrogen in the microconcentrations of [[N2] 0.001−0.01 % (fine assessment). We determined that the purity of production hydrogen, obtained during research, was 99.9±0.1 %. A given value for purity does not match certification indicators for purity of production hydrogen claimed by the manufacturer to equal 99.9999 %. We analyzed the reasons for the mismatch between the purity of obtained hydrogen and claimed characteristics. A detailed analysis revealed that the possible cause of high nitrogen concentration in hydrogen is the worn piston rings in the stage of compressor pistons, which causes the penetration of nitrogen in microconcentrations into production hydrogen. Piston rings in the compressor's stage were replaced. Repeated studies into purity of production hydrogen indicate that the purity of production hydrogen amounted to 99.99±0.01 %, which corresponds to the hydrogen of grade A.