Demonstration of a Cylinder-Fill System Based on Solid Electrolyte Oxygen Separator (SEOS) Technology: One Year Early Field Assessment at a USAF Maintenance Facility.

摘要

The goal of the effort was to conduct an early field assessment of SEOS oxygen-generation technology and obtain user feedback and lessons learned. A SEOS breadboard for charging high pressure oxygen cylinders was installed at a maintenance facility at Oklahoma City-Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC), Tinker AFB OK. The SEOS breadboard was capable of producing 99.9+% oxygen at pressures up to 2,200 psig. The breadboard used SEOS electrochemical stacks and an external oxygen compressor. The oxygen was stored in high pressure cylinders and was used to fill aircraft oxygen bottles. The oxygen was tested several times to MIL-PRF-27210, Aviator's Breathing Oxygen (ABO), and it passed the ABO specification. On 20 November 2009 the first aircraft oxygen bottle was filled with SEOS oxygen. Frequent building power interruptions with subsequent system shutdowns were suspected in causing auxiliary equipment failures and stack leaks. Recently developed next generation SEOS electrochemical stacks are less sensitive to rapid shutdowns. These newer stacks should be applied in any future program.