Hydrogen hollow cathode electrolysers

Palladium-based hollow cathode electrolysers for hydrogen production... 

The main applications are concerned with the production of ultra-pure hydrogen for laboratory and small scale electrolysers and the processing of tritiated water. Recent studies into alkahne electrolysis cells using thin-wall Pd-Ag tubes have demonstrated the applicabihty of these technologies for commercial hydrogen electrolysers. Other tests have verified the use of these hollow cathode cells for recovering tritium from tritiated water in the fuel cycle of the next fusion reactors. 

Water electrolysis cells that use hollow metal cathodes offer the advantage of increasing the amount of ultra-pure hydrogen produced as a proportion of the total. Particular attention has been paid to the use of thin-wall Pd-Ag permeator tubes and the design, manufacture and testing of prototype cells. The principles of gas permeation and water electrolysis have been introduced in order to model the behaviour of these electrolysers. The Damkohler-P6clet analysis has been also used in order to describe the influence of the main parameters, such as the effects of overpotential and the permeation activation energy on the permeation yield of the electrolytic cell. 

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