A NOVEL MEMBRANE REACTOR FOR DIRECT HYDROGEN PRODUCTION FROM COAL
Gas Technology Institute is developing a novel concept of membrane gasifier for high efficiency, clean and low cost production of hydrogen from coal. The concept incorporates a hydrogen-selective membrane within a gasification reactor for direct extraction of hydrogen from coal-derived synthesis gases. The objective of this project is to determine the technical and economic feasibility of this concept by screening, testing and identifying potential candidate membranes under high temperature, high pressure, and harsh environments of the coal gasification conditions. The best performing membranes will be selected for preliminary reactor design and cost estimates. To evaluate the performances of the candidate membranes under the gasification conditions, a high temperature/high pressure hydrogen permeation unit has been constructed in this project. The unit is designed to operate at temperatures up to 1100 C and pressures to 60 atm for evaluation of ceramic membranes such as mixed ionic conducting membrane. The unit was fully commissioned and is operational. Several perovskite membranes based on the formulations of BCN (BaCe{sub 0.8}Nd{sub 0.2}O{sub 3-x}) and BCY (BaCe{sub 0.8}Y{sub 0.2}O{sub 3-x}) were prepared by GTI and tested in the new permeation unit. These membranes were fabricated by either uniaxial pressing or tape casting technique with thickness ranging from 0.2 mm to 0.7 mm. Hydrogen permeation data for the BCN perovskite membrane have been successfully obtained for temperatures between 800 and 950 C and pressures from 1 to 12 bar. The highest hydrogen flux was measured at 1.6 STPcc/min/cm{sup 2} at a hydrogen feed pressure of 12 bar and 950 C with a membrane thickness of 0.22 mm. A membrane gasification reactor model was developed to consider the H{sub 2} permeability of the membrane, the kinetics and the equilibriums of the gas phase reactions in the gasifier, the operating conditions and the configurations of the membrane reactor. The results show that the hydrogen production efficiency using the novel membrane gasification reactor concept can be increased by about 50% versus the conventional gasification process. This confirms the previous evaluation results from the thermodynamic equilibrium calculation. A rigorous model for hydrogen permeation through mixed proton-electron conducting ceramic membranes was also developed based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The hydrogen flux predicted from the modeling results are in line with the data from the experimental measurement. The simulation also shows that the presence of steam in the permeate side or the feed side of the membrane can have a small negative effect on the hydrogen flux, in the order of 10%.
- Research Organization:
- Gas Technology Institute (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-03NT41851
- OSTI ID:
- 835003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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