High-temperature inorganic membrane

High-temperature inorganic membranes are being developed for use in the separation of SO2 and... 

The Knudsen diffusion gas separation layer can be modified by e.g. sol-gel, cvd, or crystallisation techniques to enhance the selectivity, but this decreases the permeation. Silica is the material mainly used for modification. However, data on reproducibility and stability are still scarce. The large scale use of high selective inorganic membranes and these membranes at high temperatures, up to at least 600°C, will probably last another 5-10 years. On a laboratory scale (maximum membrane surface area of about 50 cm ) these high selective membranes are now available, although stability can be a problem in certain atmospheres. 

The combination of organic and inorganic materials is under investigation by different groups in an attempt to minimize the membrane drawbacks at high temperature. Inorganic additives can help to keep water in the membrane at higher temperatures or contribute for the proton conductivity themselves. 

Hygroscopic solid inorganic proton conductors as membrane fillers increase the number of protonic carriers and thus improve the hydrophilic character of the membranes. Among the inorganic solid proton conductors, °° ° ° zirconium phosphates, heteropolyacids, metal hydrogen sulphate and a few others are of special interest for their potential role in developing high temperature composite membranes for PEMFCs. 

Membrane Reactor. Another area of current activity uses membranes in ethane dehydrogenation to shift the ethane to ethylene equiUbrium. The use of membranes is not new, and has been used in many separation processes. However, these membranes, which are mostly biomembranes, are not suitable for dehydrogenation reactions that require high temperatures. Technology has improved to produce ceramic and other inorganic (90) membranes that can be used at high temperatures (600°C and above). In addition, the suitable catalysts can be coated without blocking the pores of the membrane. Therefore, catalyst-coated membranes can be used for reaction and separation. 

In this chapter, we Hmit ourselves to the topic of zeolite membranes in catalysis. Many types of membranes exist and each membrane has its specific field where it can be appHed best. Comparing polymeric and inorganic membranes reveals that for harsher conditions and high-temperature applications, inorganic membranes outperform polymeric membranes. In the field of heterogeneous catalYsis, elevated temperatures are quite common and therefore this is a field in which inorganic membranes could find excellent applications. 

Sol-gel techniques have been widely used to prepare ceramic or glass materials with controlled microstructures. Applications of the sol-gel method in fabrication of high-temperature fuel cells are steadily reported. Modification of electrodes, electrolytes or electrolyte/electrode interface of the fuel cell has been also performed to produce components with improved microstructures. Recently, the sol-gel method has expanded into inorganic-organic hybrid membranes for low-temperature fuel cells. This paper presents an overview concerning current applications of sol-gel techniques in fabrication of fuel cell components. 

The PEMFCs require expensive polymer membrane (e.g., Nation ), and operate at a low temperature (e.g., 80°C). Although low temperature reduced the cost of material, the heat generated at low temperatures is more difficult to remove. Alternate proton conducting membranes (e.g., inorganic polymer composites) that will operate at a high temperature (e.g., 200°C) are required. The expensive platinum catalyst used for electrochemical reactions can be poisoned by even trace amounts of carbon monoxide in the hydrogen fuel stream. Hence, a more tolerant catalyst material needs to be developed. 

Chung, S.J. et al., Dual-phase inorganic metal-carbonate membrane for high temperature carbon dioxide separation, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 44, 7999, 2005. 

A significant recent advance has been the development of microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes composed of inorganic oxide materials. These are presently produced by two main techniques (a) deposition of colloidal metal oxide on to a supporting material such as carbon, and (b) as purely ceramic materials by high temperature sintering of spray-dried oxide microspheres. Other innovative production techniques lead to the... 

This chapter will only deal with the possible gas transport mechanisms and their relevance for separation of gas mixtures. Beside the transport mechanisms, process parameters also have a marked influence on the separation efficiency. Effects like backdiffusion and concentration polarization are determined by the operating downstream and upstream pressure, the flow regime, etc. This can decrease the separation efficiency considerably. Since these effects are to some extent treated in literature (Hsieh, Bhave and Fleming 1988, Keizer et al. 1988), they will not be considered here, save for one example at the end of Section 6.2.1. It seemed more important to describe the possibilities of inorganic membranes for gas separation than to deal with optimization of the process. Therefore, this chapter will only describe the possibilities of the several transport mechanisms in inorganic membranes for selective gas separation with high permeability at variable temperature and pressure. 

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