Electrophoretic Water Extractor

To address the OSD need for a high density water recovery subsystem for advanced fuel cell systems (FCS), operating on logistic fuel without the need for phase change and with minimum purification equipment, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Electrophoretic Water Extractor (EWE) based on electrophoresis in a nonuniform electric field system. The innovative EWE system design uses electrophoretic force on water to recover water vapor from steam and autothermal reformate stream (ATR) without the need of phase change, thus it has an energy efficiency of >70%. The electrophoretic force selectively extracts water versus other gases at a ratio of 1500:1 or better. As a result, it has the potential to separate water from the gas stream with better than 95% purity with no consumables used and has a small number of components. Its simplistic design allows it to be easily optimized and integrated into any FCS which uses ATR, eliminating dependency on a continuous supply of water. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of EWE by developing a small-scale laboratory system prototype to demonstrate its technological feasibility. In Phase II POC will develop a scaled-up system capable of supporting a 50 kWe FCS.