On-site and on-demand
hydrogen generation
Get in touch with our specialist team to find out about our Hydrogen technology.
The proven and mature proprietary technology within the purification module represents a significant advancement in scalable, reliable, and affordable hydrogen purification and a winning alternative versus micro-scale pressure swing absorption (PSA).
Scalable, Reliable and Affordable Hydrogen Purification
Lowest Initial Cost of Equipment
Converts reformate gas produced by the hydrogen generator into fuel cell grade high-purity hydrogen at a much lower capital cost compared to PSA at scales below 500 kg per day.
Simple Operation
The purification module is elegant in design with few parts. The purification module operates at an elevated temperature and produces high-purity hydrogen in a single step.
Compact and Scalable
At the specified operating pressure, a single purification module with a small form factor (33 cm x 16 cm x 16 cm) will produce up to 38kg per day of hydrogen. Multiple purification modules can be aligned to produce larger quantities of hydrogen from a single hydrogen-containing feedstream.
Fuel Cell Grade, High-Purity Hydrogen
Produces greater than 99.99% high-purity hydrogen with less than 0.2 ppm CO. Hydrogen purity meets ISO 14687 (2019) purity standard for fuel cell applications (stationary and mobility).
Key Advantages
Hydrogen Purifier Module
Mature Technology
The Element 1 purification module has been tested, integrated, and field-deployed with many commercial PEM fuel cell brands.
Flexible Design
The same purification module is used with all the Element 1 family of hydrogen generators, and can also be used as a stand-alone hydrogen purification product when high purity hydrogen is required for other applications and industries such as power plant generator cooling, and material processing plants.
Easy Integration
The membrane-based separation process works by a pressure differential. No valves, absorbents, or complicated control strategies are required.
High Reliability and Long Lifetime
The solid-state purification module has no moving parts, robust design, and a long lifetime. Engineered to achieve greater than 15,000 operational hours.
What is the principle of operation of the Element 1 solid-state membrane purification technology?
The hydrogen purifier module incorporates a hydrogen-selective membrane, stable at high operating temperatures, to generate pure hydrogen.
How do the membrane purifiers work?
The purifier operates on a pressure differential and requires no moving parts. The steam reformer provides syngas or reformate gas to the upstream side of the membrane purifier at 15 to 25 bar. The downstream side of the purifier is at low pressure (1.5 bar to 3 bar). Hydrogen passes across the membranes based on this pressure differential.
What is the hydrogen production of the Element 1 membrane purifiers?
Hydrogen production from a single purifier (at normal operational pressures) can be scaled from 5 sLm to 300 sLm. For large-scale applications, we use multiples of our largest membrane module.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hydrogen Purifier Module
What is the hydrogen purity produced by the Element 1 membrane purifiers?
Element 1 hydrogen generators use a hydrogen-selective membrane as the first stage of hydrogen purification. Element 1 uses a polishing reactor as a second stage purifier to ensure that any carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the product hydrogen are converted to methane which is inert to the fuel cell.
The hydrogen purity specification for all the Element 1 hydrogen generators meets ISO 14687 (2019) purity standards for fuel cell applications. The hydrogen purity is >99.99% hydrogen with <0.2 ppm CO and <0.2 ppm CO2. Typically, we see 99.98% to 99.99% hydrogen with no detectable CO and no detectable CO2. The outlet hydrogen pressure is typically between 1.5 bar to 3 bar.
What is the lifetime of the membrane purifier?
The expected membrane module lifetime is greater than 15,000 operating hours, with unlimited standby hours.
How tolerant is the membrane purifier to shock and vibration?
The solid-state membrane purifier has no moving parts, features a robust design, and has a very good tolerance to shock and vibrations.
Unique Filtration Technology
Developed over 35 years under the direction of Dr. David Edlund, the Element 1 membrane-based purification module is at the core of our protected intellectual property.