O2 removal (DEOXO): Production of green hydrogen

The purification of electrolytically produced hydrogen is a critical process step in order to meet the strict quality requirements for fuel cells and industrial applications. Since raw hydrogen often contains traces of oxygen due to the process, its removal is essential to ensure plant safety. The ActiSorb O3 application uses the chemical principle of catalytic recombination for this purpose. In this process, the residual oxygen contained in the gas stream is converted into water in a controlled manner with the hydrogen. This exothermic conversion is kinetically favored by the use of specific precious metal catalysts, primarily based on palladium or platinum.

The decisive advantage of this process control lies in the reaction kinetics: The catalyst significantly reduces the activation energy, so that the conversion takes place spontaneously even at low start-up temperatures. This eliminates the need for energy-intensive preheating of the gas stream and increases overall efficiency. Within the fixed bed packing, the oxygen content is reliably reduced to below 1 ppmv, enabling purity levels of up to 6.0 to be achieved.

Due to the high resistance to catalyst poisons and the thermal stability of the carrier, the ActiSorb O3 application achieves a long service life of the packing, ensuring continuous and reliable gas purity in continuous chemical operation.