Process and device for separating hydrogen from a gas mixture by diffusion

According to the invention, a process and a device are introduced, by which hydrogen can be effectively separated from gas mixtures, even if the hydrogen is only present in very small amounts and may be present in the form of a chemical compound. This is achieved by the hydrogen present in molecular and/or chemically bound form in the gas space of a chamber which can be closed on all sides, which is separated from a second chamber, which can also be closed on all sides, by a wall which is selectively permeable to hydrogen, being converted by contact dissociation, luminous current discharge, high frequency discharge, ionising radiation or in an arc into atomic hydrogen, and where the hydrogen is collected in the second chamber after permeation through the permeable wall restoring it to molecular hydrogen. By means of this procedure, the hydrogen diffusion is vastly improved (by several orders of magnitude) and becomes practically independent of any hydrogen pressure differences on both sides of the membrane, so that, without any mechanical moving parts, which would introduce (oil) contamination and sealing problems, a considerable compression of the separated hydrogen is achieved compared to its partial pressure in the initial mixture, where, for example pressures of up to 20 bar can be achieved in the separated gaseous hydrogen isotope mixture, and even if the partial pressure of the hydrogen in the gas mixture is only about 10-1 millibar. Diffusion separation is carried on for such a pressure increase until the required pressure is reached behind the wall permeable to hydrogen. (orig./MM)