Recent advances in membrane technologies for hydrogen purification

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2020-03

Authors

Gabriel Bernardo (Author) FEUP; Araujo, T. (Author) Other; da Silva Lopes, T. (Author) Other; J. M. Sousa (Author) FEUP; Adélio Mendes (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Vol. 45

Pages: 7313-7338

ISSN: 0360-3199

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 2 Citations

Scopus - 47 Citations

ScienceDirect (Elsevier)

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Chemical engineering

Associated Projects

HopeH2 - Dispositivo tandem PEC-PV eficiente, estável e escalável para geração de hidrogénio solar

LEPABE - Financiamento Plurianual 2020-2023 da Unidade de I&D LEPABE - Laboratório de Engenharia de Processos, Ambiente, Biotecnologia e Energia

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00Q-WN6

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.06.162

Abstract (EN): Planet Earth is facing accelerated global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. The United Nations agreement at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015 highlighted the importance of reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Hydrogen is a clean and efficient energy carrier and a hydrogen-based economy is now widely regarded as a potential solution for the future of energy security and sustainability. Although hydrogen can be produced from water electrolysis, economic reasons dictate that most of the H-2 produced worldwide, currently comes from the steam reforming of natural gas and this situation is set to continue in the foreseeable future. This production process delivers a H-2-rich mixture of gases from which H-2 needs to be purified up to the ultra-high purity levels required by fuel cells (99.97%). This driving force pushes for the development of newer H-2 purification technologies that can be highly selective and more energy efficient Palladium-based membranes than the traditional energy intensive processes of pressure swing adsorption and cryogenic distillation. Membrane technology appears as an obvious energy efficient alternative for producing the ultra-pure H-2 required for fuel cells. However, membrane technology for H-2 purification has still not reached the maturity level required for its ubiquitous industrial application. This review article covers the major aspects of the current research in membrane separation technology for H-2 purification, focusing on four major types of emerging membrane technologies (carbon molecular sieve membranes; ionic-liquid based membranes; palladium-based membranes and electrochemical hydrogen pumping membranes) and establishes a comparison between them in terms of advantages and limitations.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 26