Performance and Long-Term Stability of Pd/PSS and Pd/Al2O3 Membranes for Hydrogen Separation

Membranes

Simona Liguori²  Adolfo Iulianelli²  Francesco Dalena³  Pietro Pinacci⁴  Francesca Drago⁴  Maria Broglia⁴  Yan Huang¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Xin-Mo-Fan Road 5, Nanjing 210009, China; E-Mail:;Institute on Membrane Technology of Italian National Research Council (ITM-CNR), c/o University of Calabria, Cubo 17/C, Rende (CS) 87036, Italy; E-Mails:;Chemistry and Chemical Technologies Department, University of Calabria, Cubo 15/D, Via P. Bucci, Rende (CS) 87036, Italy; E-Mail:;RSE S.p.A., Via Rubattino 54, Milano (MI) 20134, Italy; E-Mails:

关键词: palladium composite membrane;    porous stainless steel;    ideal selectivity;    hydrogen separation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/membranes4010143

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The present work is focused on the investigation of the performance and long-term stability of two composite palladium membranes under different operating conditions. One membrane (Pd/porous stainless steel (PSS)) is characterized by a ~10 µm-thick palladium layer on a porous stainless steel substrate, which is pretreated by means of surface modification and oxidation; the other membrane (Pd/Al₂O₃) is constituted by a ~7 µm-thick palladium layer on an asymmetric microporous Al₂O₃ substrate. The operating temperature and pressure ranges, used for studying the performance of these two kinds of membranes, are 350–450 °C and 200–800 kPa, respectively. The H₂ permeances and the H₂/N₂ selectivities of both membranes were investigated and compared with literature data. At 400 °C and 200 kPa as pressure difference, Pd/PSS and Pd/Al₂O₃ membranes exhibited an H₂/N₂ ideal selectivity equal to 11700 and 6200, respectively, showing stability for 600 h. Thereafter, H₂/N₂ selectivity of both membranes progressively decreased and after around 2000 h, dropped dramatically to 55 and 310 for the Pd/PSS and Pd/Al₂O₃ membranes, respectively. As evidenced by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analyses, the pinholes appear on the whole surface of the Pd/PSS membrane and this is probably due to release of sulphur from the graphite seal rings.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.