Temperature and Pressure Effects on Hydrogen Permeation in Palladium Based Membranes

Abstract

Palladium based membranes offer a promising method for extracting hydrogen from multi-component synthetic gas (syngas) mixtures. Thin palladium and palladium alloy membranes supported on porous media combine both enhanced strength and durability with increased permeation. The syngas produced from waste and biomass contains several gases of different concentrations. The availability of clean hydrogen from syngas is novel since the hydrogen storage and transportation are amongst the major issues for the utilization of hydrogen. A lab scale experimental facility has been designed and built that allows one to examine different types of membranes for efficient and effective separation of hydrogen from syngas. Experimental results have been obtained from this facility using palladium membranes. The results show hydrogen permeation increased with both temperature and pressure, with the greatest increase occurring with rising temperature. Determination of the pressure exponent revealed that the reaction was limited by both the surface reaction and diffusion process.