GB466563A - Improvements in apparatus for electrolytically decomposing water or other liquids under pressure - Google Patents

Abstract

466,563. Electrolytic cells. OLSEN, H. Nov. 27, 1935, No. 32912. Convention date, Nov. 28, 1934. [Class 41] A cell for the decomposition of water at high pressure comprises a set of concentric cylindrical electrodes and means for withdrawing hydrogen from the top of the cathode compartments and oxygen from the bottom of the anode compartments. The apparatus is suitable for working at pressures above 700 atmospheres at which oxygen is heavier than the electrolyte. In the apparatus shown, the anode comprises a perforated plate a<1> having an unperforated extension a<2> which is bent over a strip 30 to form a closed space the lower ends of which are separated by a strip 15. A diaphragm b is mounted between the plate a<1> and a perforated plate c. The assemblage together with an outer strip 16 is rolled into a cylinder with axis a b and the seams are welded. A number of such cylinders are mounted round the inner one. Distance pieces 20 are provided at the top ; these may connect the plates c electrically to the unperforated plates a<2> of successive cells so as to form joint cathodes or they may be insulators, the outer surfaces of the plates a<2> in this case forming the cathodes. The members 20 have passages for escape of hydrogen which then' passes through a passage 10 and leaves by the annular space between rising tubes 8, 9. Oxygen leaves at the bottom through passages in the members 15 proceeding by a passage o<1> to an annular space o<2> between the inner wall of a set of cells mounted below the first set and an inner tube 18. Hydrogen from the next lower set of cells passes by a pipe 24<11> into the electrolyte reservoir and leaves by the same conduit as that from the top cells. To permit removal of oxygen at pressures below 700 atmospheres a pair of strips are mounted within each anode chamber to form an internal passage connected at the bottom to the conduit o<1> and opening at the top into a gas cap formed in the strip 30. Water is supplied to the cathode compartments by passages f. The space o<2> opens at the bottom into a cylinder, not shown, filled with water which the oxygen displaces upwardly through a tube 32 surmounted by a bell 33, the water then entering the central reservoir for replenishment of the electrolytic cells. At pressures below 700 atmospheres the water is displaced downwardly from the cylinder through tubes provided for the purpose ; oxygen then enters the tube 32, but cannot escape since the top of this tube is above the highest level of electrolyte in the apparatus. Part of the hydrogen withdrawn may be cooled and introduced by a pump into the lowest point of the fresh water space of the cells in order to cool it, the hydrogen then passing with the freshly liberated hydrogen. Contact with the innermost electrode is made by the tubular wall 13 and a ring 6 surmounting it to which is screwed a ring 2 connected to a terminal rod. The outermost electrode is connected bv an insulated inward extension 21 to the innermost electrode of the next lower set. The container consists of a smooth tube in which the cover and base are secured by screw-threads. Alternatively the end parts are slightly conical with the larger part inmost, the tube being heated to permit insertion of these. Projecting edges of the tube and cover or tube and base are welded together.