Catalyst-free ceramic-carbonate dual phase membrane reactor for hydrogen production from gasifier syngas

Abstract

Ceramic-carbonate dual phase dense membranes are a new group of inorganic membranes with perm-selective to CO 2 at high temperatures. This paper reports a new catalyst-free tubular membrane reactor to shift CO from the hot gasifier syngas to H 2 and CO 2 with simultaneous separation of CO 2. The membrane reactor is based on a samarium-doped ceria (SDC)-carbonate dual phase membrane which removes CO 2 facilitating conversion of CO to H 2 at high temperatures. The results show that catalytic-free membrane reactor can convert CO to H 2 and CO 2 with removal of CO 2 at temperatures above 800 o C. At 900 o C, the membrane reactor gives CO 2 flux of 2.7×10-3 mol•m-2 •s-1 , CO conversion and CO 2 recovery of 26.1% and 18.7%, respectively, much higher than the conventional fixed bed reactor under identical conditions. Temperature, steam to CO ratio, and syngas feed flow rate are key parameters to control the reaction performance. Increase of the feed pressure (reaction side) is an effective strategy to improve the reactor performance and CO 2 recovery. The membrane reactor shows high thermal and chemical stability under syngas WGS reaction environment. This work demonstrates potential of using catalyst-free SDC-carbonate dual phase membrane reactor for water gas shift reaction to convert CO to H 2 with CO 2 capture.

Computational fluid dynamics simulation for dual‐phase membrane module for CO 2 capture: Effect of membrane thickness, temperature and CO 2 feed concentration

“…It could be observed that the CO 2 recovery value increased gradually from 0.96 to 10.38% when the temperature was elevated from 350 to 750°C. The trend is consistent with the results reported by Dong et al 13 The decrease in CO 2 recovery at lower feed temperature was due to the low permeance of CO 2 across the membrane. When the temperature was increased, the permeability increased as well.…”

Efficient Estimation of Permeate Flux of Asymmetric Ceramic Membranes for Vacuum Membrane Distillation

“…Compared with polymeric membranes, ceramic membranes, such as alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) and zirconia (ZrO 2 ) membranes, benefit from higher mechanical strength and thermal stability [ 6 , 7 ] and are suitable for application under harsh operating conditions. They have shown promising potential for membrane absorption [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], membrane reaction [ 11 ], membrane distillation [ 12 ], and other applications. Typical ceramic membranes are usually designed to have an asymmetric structure, so to combine high flux and high selectivity.…”

Catalyst-Free Ceramic–Carbonate Dual-Phase Membrane Reactors for High-Temperature Water Gas Shift: A Simulation Study

“…Recently, we developed several high-performance ceramic–carbonate dual-phase (CCDP) membranes, which are high-temperature CO 2 separation materials with remarkable CO 2 permeance and theoretically infinite CO 2 selectivity. − The CCDP membrane is composed of a porous oxygen ionic-conducting or mixed-conducting ceramic phase that serves as a support layer and a molten carbonate phase infiltrated into the support. These CCDP membranes have been applied to the membrane reactor process for steam reforming of methane with a catalyst and water gas shift without catalyst . The catalyst-free CCDP membrane reactor shows high thermal and chemical stability under the WGS reaction environment.…”

“…These CCDP membranes have been applied to the membrane reactor process for steam reforming of methane with a catalyst 10 and water gas shift without catalyst. 11 The catalyst-free CCDP membrane reactor shows high thermal and chemical stability under the WGS reaction environment. It offers a CO 2 flux of 2.7 × 10 −3 mol s −1 m −2 and CO conversion and CO 2 recovery of 26.1 and 18.7%, respectively, much higher than the conventional fixedbed reactor performance under identical conditions.…”