In hydrogen production, the syngas streams produced by reformers and/or coal gasification plants contain a large amount of H2 and CO in need of upgrading. To this purpose, reactors using Pd-based membranes have been widely studied as they allow separation and recovery of a pure hydrogen stream. However, the high cost of Pd-membranes is one of the main limitations for scaling up technology. Therefore, many researchers are now pursuing the possibility of using supported membranes with as thin as possible Pd-alloy layers. In this work, the upgrading of a syngas stream is experimentally investigated in a water gas shift membrane reactor operated in a high temperature range with an ultra-thin supported membrane (3.6 micron-thick). The membrane permeance was measured before and after catalyst packing and also after reaction for 2100 h of operation in total. Membrane reactor performance was evaluated as a function of operating conditions such as temperature, pressure, gas hourly space velocity, feed molar ratio, and sweep gas. A CO conversion significantly higher than the thermodynamics upper limit of a traditional reactor was achieved, even at high gas hourly space velocities and a 25% less reaction volume than that of a traditional reactor was enough to achieve a 90% equilibrium conversion.

Syngas upgrading in a membrane reactor with thin Pd-alloy supported membrane

CARAVELLA, Alessio;Drioli E;CURCIO, EFREM;
2015-01-01

Abstract

In hydrogen production, the syngas streams produced by reformers and/or coal gasification plants contain a large amount of H2 and CO in need of upgrading. To this purpose, reactors using Pd-based membranes have been widely studied as they allow separation and recovery of a pure hydrogen stream. However, the high cost of Pd-membranes is one of the main limitations for scaling up technology. Therefore, many researchers are now pursuing the possibility of using supported membranes with as thin as possible Pd-alloy layers. In this work, the upgrading of a syngas stream is experimentally investigated in a water gas shift membrane reactor operated in a high temperature range with an ultra-thin supported membrane (3.6 micron-thick). The membrane permeance was measured before and after catalyst packing and also after reaction for 2100 h of operation in total. Membrane reactor performance was evaluated as a function of operating conditions such as temperature, pressure, gas hourly space velocity, feed molar ratio, and sweep gas. A CO conversion significantly higher than the thermodynamics upper limit of a traditional reactor was achieved, even at high gas hourly space velocities and a 25% less reaction volume than that of a traditional reactor was enough to achieve a 90% equilibrium conversion.
2015
Membrane reactor, Hydrogen production, Water gas shift, Pd-based membrane
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11770/151699
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 52
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 41
social impact