Integration of Membrane Fuel Cells Systems within Chlor Alkali plants for the recovery of industrial Hydrogen

摘要

Various development programs are directed to utilise fuel cells in a wide range of industrialapplications: some of the programs are aimed to the recovery of hydrogen from C/Aindustries that are one of the most intensive industrial consumer of energy (130 millions ofMWhr per year in the world). Following our design the hydrogen produced by C/Aelectrolysis may be easily fed to Membrane Fuel Cells Systems which are directly connectedto the main electrical circuit of the electrolysers without any need for expensive electricalpower conditioning equipment. The recovered energy is in the range of 20 % of the totalconsumed energy. Original solutions, protected by patent applications, directed to optimisethe yield and the simplicity of the system are considered.The experimental results obtained byhydrogen from C/A electrolysers are shown and compared with the results obtained with longterm tests with "laboratory grade" hydrogen and short term tests with polluted hydrogen.Thedesign of some typical cases has already been completed and on this basis economical dataare available for Companies interested in a feasibility study specifically tailored for theirplant situation: particular site conditions may change dramatically the profitability of theinstallation of the Fuel Cell Systems. Projections of the costs of the Fuel Cells and generalconsiderations about the economical feasibility and sensitivity to the main parameters arereported.