Hydrogen offers the potential to decarbonize the automotive and stationary power sectors and is therefore expected to play an increasingly significant role in meeting global energy demand. However, due to its low volumetric and gravimetric energy densities, it is important to find methods to efficiently store hydrogen in order to grow the hydrogen economy. Storing hydrogen as a compressed gas could be achieved by electrochemical compression (ECC), which is a membrane-based alternative to conventional mechanical compressors. ECC can be superior to mechanical compressors because of its higher efficiency, lack of moving parts and noiseless operation. Here, we report on the ECC of hydrogen using a Nafion 115 membrane at room temperature. Pressure vs. time curves have been collected at various operating voltages, and a compression ratio of 150 has been achieved with a single cell at an operating voltage of 0.1 V. This work focuses on analyzing the contribution of back-diffusion to the performance of an electrochemical hydrogen compressor.
