An ionic liquid piston compressor, ionic compressor or ionic liquid piston pump is a hydrogen compressor based on an ionic liquid piston instead of a metal piston as in a piston-metal diaphragm compressor.[1]
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The ionic compressor exploits some gases' insolubility in ionic liquids - the virtually non-measurable vapor pressures in combination with a large temperature window for the liquid phase. The solubility of hydrogen in ionic liquids is very low. This insolubility is exploited by using a body of ionic liquid to compress hydrogen up to 450 bar[2] in hydrogen filling stations; and in so doing they reduced the number of moving parts from about 500 in a conventional reciprocating compressor down to 8.[3]
Not to be confused with the ion pump or the ionic liquid ring pump.
After the renewed interest in ionic liquids, research was done by proionic, an enterprise in the spin-off center "ZAT Center for applied Technology" of the University of Leoben.[4][5] The system was demonstrated at Zemships.[6]