Electrolyzer having a horizontal tubular enclosure

An electrolyser consisting of a stack of elemental cells, the said stack being located in a horizontal tubular enclosure. The enclosure consists of a fixed vertical baseplate (2) and of a tubular envelope (1) mounted upon the horizontal bed (8) of the apparatus by way of supporting rollers (7). The body of the stack (4) is supported during the opening operation by chocks (12) and by supporting rollers. The invention is made use of for the production of hydrogen and oxygen by means of industrial electrolyzers.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention refers to an electrolyzer consisting of a stack of 
cells surrounded by a horizontal tubular enclosure. 
BACKGROUND 
Electrolyzers such as those intended for the industrial production of 
hydrogen and oxygen by the electrolysis of water are formed of a stack of 
a very large number of elemental cells, said stack being placed in a 
tubular enclosure which is generally pressurized and cylindrical. 
Such an enclosure must be able to be dismantled quickly and easily in order 
to enable maintenance of the cells with the minimum loss of time. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention refers to an electrolyzer having a horizontal tubular 
enclosure for rapid dismantling. It is characterized in that said tubular 
enclosure consists of a fixed vertical base and of a horizontal tubular 
body which is movable longitudinally and mounted upon a device for rolling 
it. 
The present invention likewise refers to a method of dismantling an 
electrolyzer of this type, characterized in that it consists in removing 
said tubular body by horizontal translation and as said removal proceeds, 
placing supporting chocks under the body of the stack of electrolytic 
cells left exposed by said removal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3 together, the electrolyzer of the invention is 
formed of a horizontal stack 4 of a very large number of elemental 
electrolytic cells, this stack being kept in place on the baseplate 2 by 
means of the retainer plate 14 and eight tie rods 3. 
The baseplate 2 of the electrolyzer is vertical and is permanently fixed to 
a horizontal bed 8 forming the frame of the apparatus. Furthermore the 
stack 4 is surrounded by a removable horizontal cylindrical body 1 which 
in the closed position as shown in FIG. 1 fits closely against the 
baseplate 2, the whole (1,2) forming the enclosure of the electrolyzer. 
The stack 4 rests upon two rollways 5 which in turn rest upon the inner 
portion of the envelope 1 by way of supporting rollers 6 and guide rollers 
11 at the sides. Furthermore the cylindrical envelope 1 in turn rests by 
feet 15 upon the horizontal bed 8 by way of supporting rollers carried by 
the feet 15, and guide rollers 13 at the sides, likewise carried by the 
feet 15. 
As may be seen from FIG. 1 the enclosure is attached by a fitting 16 to a 
horizontal cable located in the hollow in the bed 8 and wrapped round a 
driving pulley 10 and a guide pulley 17 so as to be able to exert upon the 
enclosure 1 a horizontal pull towards the right or towards the left, 
enabling opening and closing respectively of the enclosure of the 
electrolyzer as will be shown by reference to FIG. 2. 
FIG. 2 shows the operation of opening the enclosure by lateral release of 
the tubular envelope 1. 
For this operation the driving pulley 10 is driven clockwise, which draws 
the tubular portion 1 towards the right. The envelope 1 then moves by 
rolling by way of the rollers 7 upon the bed 8, the portion of the stack 4 
which remains inside the enclosure 1 being supported by means of the 
rollers 6. Furthermore, in accordance with the invention, as the opening 
of the enclosure of the electrolyzer proceeds, supporting chocks 12 are 
placed under the exposed portion of the stack 4 as represented in the 
drawing. 
The positioning of the chocks 12 as the opening of the enclosure proceeds 
may be either manual or automatic: for example, the chocks 12 may be 
parallelepipedal chocks which are laid down when the envelope 1 is lying 
over them above the bed 8, and raised by a conventional tripping device 
having a spring, when said cylindrical envelope 1 is no longer lying over 
them. 
The invention is made use of for the production of hydrogen and oxygen by 
means of industrial electrolyzers.