Effects of Operating Conditions on the Oxygen Removal Performance of the Deoxo Chamber in the Water Electrolysis System

Abstract

Although the production of high-quality hydrogen from electrolysis systems is essential, research in this area is limited. In this study, we investigate the effect of operating conditions on the change in oxygen concentration through computational analysis for optimizing the deoxo chamber of a water electrolysis system. The test results of the water electrolysis system are simulated, and the oxygen concentration of the deoxo chamber is calculated through computational fluid dynamics analysis according to various conditions, such as the pressure, temperature, and flow rate. The O2 removal performance is significantly affected by the operating pressure and temperature, with an increase in both leading to a decrease in the O2 concentration in the water electrolysis system. Furthermore, we confirm that the change in the flow rate into the chamber has a minor effect on the change in the oxygen removal performance when the inlet flow rate was 1–1.5 kg/h and the length diameter ratio of the chamber is 38.4.