SIC-BASED HYDROGEN SELECTIVE MEMBRANES FOR WATER-GAS-SHIFT REACTION
A hydrogen selective membrane as a membrane reactor (MR) can significantly improve the power generation efficiency with a reduced capital and operating cost for the waster-gas-shift reaction. Existing hydrogen selective ceramic membranes are not suitable for the proposed MR due to their poor hydrothermal stability. In this project we have focused on the development of innovative silicon carbide (SiC) based hydrogen selective membranes, which can potentially overcome this technical barrier. SiC macro-porous membranes have been successfully fabricated via extrusion of commercially available SiC powder. Also, an SiC hydrogen selective thin film was prepared via our CVD/I technique. This composite membrane demonstrated excellent hydrogen selectivity at high temperature ({approx}600 C). More importantly, this membrane also exhibited a much improved hydrothermal stability at 600 C with 50% steam (atmospheric pressure) for nearly 100 hours. In parallel, we have explored an alternative approach to develop a H{sub 2} selective SiC membrane via pyrolysis of selected pre-ceramic polymers and sol-gel techniques. Building upon the positive progress made in the membrane development study, we conducted an optimization study to develop an H{sub 2} selective SiC membrane with sufficient hydrothermal stability suitable for the WGS environment. In addition, mathematical simulation has been performed to compare the performance of the membrane reactor (MR) vs conventional packed bed reactor for WGS reaction. Our result demonstrates that >99.999% conversion can be accomplished via WGS-MR using the hydrogen selective membrane developed by us. Further, water/CO ratio can be reduced, and >97% hydrogen recovery and <200 ppm CO can be accomplished according to the mathematical simulation. Thus, we believe that the operating economics of WGS can be improved significantly based upon the proposed MR concept. In parallel, gas separations and hydrothermal and long-term-storage stability of the hydrogen selected membrane have been experimentally demonstrated using a pilot-scale tubular membrane under a simulated WGS environment.
- Research Organization:
- Media and Process Technology Inc. (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG26-99FT40683
- OSTI ID:
- 829954
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Dec 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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