Cost-Effective Catalytic Membranes for H2 Purification

Conventional membrane systems for high purity hydrogen production from hydrocarbons typically employ permselective Pd or Pd-alloy materials in conjunction with hydrocarbon reforming.  Palladium is expensive, prone to poisoning by carbonaceous materials and suffers embrittlement over multiple thermal cycles. In the light of these challenges our research group is exploring the use of catalytic membranes to achieve hydrogen separation without relying upon costly and delicate permselective materials.

In this presentation, we will review our work in the development of catalytic membranes for hydrogen extraction from fermentation liquors^[1] and demonstrate the extension of this technique to hydrogen purification from reformate mixtures (H₂, CO, CO₂, H₂O) using a catalytic membrane active for water-gas-shift reaction. Design simulations of this membrane system predict H₂:CO permselectivities that are competitive to palladium membranes at a fraction of the materials cost.

[1] B. Kuncharam and B.A. Wilhite. Design of a Composite Catalytic Membrane for Permselective Extraction of Hydrogen from Ethanol via Reaction and Diffusion. Journal of Membrane Science, in review (2011).