New Analytical Device to Detect Trace-level Impurities in Hydrogen for Fuel Cell Applications

摘要

A multifunction analytical instrument has been designed, developed, and tested for the detection of impurities in hydrogen. The targeted compounds are in accordance with the ISO standard 14687-2, which specifies the quality characteristics of hydrogen fuel for utilization in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell road vehicle systems. These compounds include argon, oxygen, nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, non-methane hydrocarbons, and sulphur compounds. The solution presented here is based on gas chromatography coupled to different detection systems: a pulsed discharge helium ionization detector (PDHID) and a mass spectrometry (MS). As an example, the new methods are characterized by limits of quantification in the range of 1.0 - 2.8 ppb for sulphur compounds, 0.3 - 2.4 ppb for hydrocarbons, 70 ppb for carbon monoxide, and 140 ppb for carbon dioxide.