Feasibility study on electrochemical compressor utilizing water-hydrogen heat pump system

Heat pump systems offer significant potential for achieving high efficiency and have gained attention as an environmentally friendly technology. However, traditional compressors used in heat pumps face issues such as low efficiency, noise, and oil contamination. Electrochemical compressors offer a promising alternative to address these challenges, but research on heat pump systems utilizing electrochemical compressors remains limited. A high-pressure electrochemical compressor is designed, and both experimental and numerical analyses are conducted to analyze the operational characteristics under varying conditions. The results show that increasing power consumption leads to a higher mass flux of refrigerant, driven primarily by electro-osmotic drag. Additionally, increasing the mixing ratio from 24% to 30% results in a threefold increase in mass flux, attributed to enhanced membrane conductivity. Higher operating temperatures also significantly improve mass flux by reducing back diffusion. A performance map is developed to analyze the comprehensive performance characteristics of an electrochemical compressor. The analysis reveals that the efficiency of the compressor exceeds 50% at pressure ratios below 3, with particularly high efficiency observed in regions of low mass flux. These findings demonstrate the potential of electrochemical compressors to be used in heat pump system to improve the overall efficiency.