Separation of hydrogen from hydrogen/ethylene mixtures using PEM fuel cell technology

This article is a study of the feasibility of electrochemically separating hydrogen from hydrogen/ethylene mixtures. Experimental results are presented for the performance of the anode of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell that is used to separate hydrogen/ethylene mixtures. Experiments were performed using a single cell PEM fuel cell. The experimental results show that, to a large extent, the ethylene reacts with the hydrogen in the anode chamber to form ethane. In spite of this reaction, it is still possible to separate a significant portion of the hydrogen and options for improving the separation efficiency are discussed. A zero-dimensional mathematical model of the hydrogen separation and hydrogenation process has been developed and it has been shown that this model gives generally good agreement with the experimental results.