Advancing the Technology Base for High Temperature Hydrogen Membranes
High purity hydrogen is a critical component for at least two major industrial processes: 1) the refining of conventional steels and raw pig iron into low carbon steels and high purity iron used for high performance magnets in motors, generators, alternators, transformers, and etc.; and 2) refining metallurgical grade silicon to the high- purity, polycrystalline silicon used in fabricating single crystal silicon wafers for semiconductor manufacturing. In the process of producing low carbon iron products, CO and CO2 impurities prevent efficient removal of the carbon already in the raw iron. In the refining of metallurgical grade silicon, the presence of any impurity above the part-per- million level prevents the ultimate fabrication of the large scale single crystals that are essential to the semiconductor device. In a lesser magnitude role, high quality hydrogen is used in a variety of other processes, including specialty metals refining (e.g., iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, and ruthenium) and R{ampersand}D in areas such as organic synthesis and development of certain types of fuel cells. In all of these applications, a high-temperature hydrogen membrane can provide a method for achieving a very high purity level of hydrogen in a manner that is more economical and/or more rugged than existing techniques.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Management and Administration, Washington, DC (United States); USDOE Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 635083
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-97-3968; CONF-9710158-; ON: DE98003017; TRN: AD-a339 622
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 5. annual membrane technology separations planning conference, Newton, MA (United States), 27-29 Oct 1997; Other Information: PBD: [Oct 1997]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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