Upgrading of Simulated Syngas by Using a Nanoporous Silica Membrane Reactor

Abstract

The permeance properties of a nanoporous silica membrane were first evaluated in a laboratory‐scale porous silica membrane reactor (MR). The results indicated that CO, CO2, and N2 inhibited H2 permeation. Increased H2 permeability and selectivity were obtained when gas was transferred from the lumen side to the shell side. This was therefore selected as a suitable permeation direction. On this basis, upgrading of simulated syngas was experimentally investigated as a function of temperature (150 – 300 °C), feed pressure (up to 0.4 MPa), and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV), by using a nanoporous silica MR in the presence of a Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst. The CO conversion obtained with the MR was significantly higher than that with a packed‐bed reactor (PBR) and broke the thermodynamic equilibrium of a PBR at 275 – 300 °C and a GHSV of 2665 h–1. The use of a low GHSV and high feed pressure improved the CO conversion and led to the recovery of more H2.

Responsive Nanoporous Membranes with Size Selectivity and Charge Rejection from Self-Assembly of Polyelectrolyte “Hairy” Nanoparticles

“…Membrane separations rely on size and charge exclusion and require large permeability and rejection of target solutes, , which in the case of nanoporous membranes include suspended solids, bacteria, viruses, and ions . Because of their separation ability, nanoporous membranes find applications on the industrial and laboratory scale in water and wastewater treatments, food engineering, biotechnology, biosensing, drug delivery, and catalysis . All these applications require precise control over the pore size in a wide range, a narrow pore size distribution and functional pore surfaces, and would greatly benefit from a simple and economical preparation of the membranes.…”

Towards practical application of gasification: a critical review from syngas and biochar perspectives

“…Brunetti et al (2015) tested the performance of an ultra-thin (3.6 μm) Pd-Ag membrane for H2 production, which achieved CO conversion of 96% and H2 recovery of 84% at 2500 h -1 , 400 °C, and 0.4 MPa. Alternatively, low cost membranes such as porous silica membranes have also been adopted to catalyze the WGS reaction (Battersby et al, 2008;Wei & Kawamoto, 2013). However, water can potentially reduce the selectivity of Co-doped silica membranes by adsorbing on the surface of silica membrane and thus blocking micropores (Battersby et al, 2008).…”

“…However, water can potentially reduce the selectivity of Co-doped silica membranes by adsorbing on the surface of silica membrane and thus blocking micropores (Battersby et al, 2008). In general, porous silica membrane reactors achieved higher CO conversion than packed-bed reactors with the same catalysts (Brunetti et al, 2007;Wei & Kawamoto, 2013).…”

A comparative study of the self-assembly of achiral and chiral hairy nanoparticles with polystyrene cores and poly(2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate) hairs

“…24,25 The development of ATRP as the most oen used controlled/living radical polymerization has allowed the synthesis of well-dened block and gra copolymers which can be utilized as building blocks for new assemblies. 26,27 The synthesis, design and characterization of nanoporous materials have been of interest due to their wide range of applications in biosensing, 28,29 catalysis, 30,31 drug delivery, 32 and optics. 33 Most of these applications require control in the pore size, functional membrane surface, chemical and thermal stability.…”