Thick film technology drop-coating

Barhieri et al. developed a membrane reactor for water-gas shift 544]. A palladium/ silver film containing 23 wt.% silver, which was between 1- and 1.5-pm thick was produced hy sputtering. This film was coated onto a porous stainless steel support. This patented production method allowed a much higher ratio of pore size to film thickness compared with conventional methods. Tubular membranes of 13-mm outer diameter, 10-20-mm length and 1.1-1.5-pm thickness, respectively, were prepared. A commercial Cu based catalyst supplied by Haldor-Topsoe was used for the water-gas shift reaction. At 210 °C a permeating flux of 4.5 L (m s) was determined for pure hydrogen at 0.2-bar pressure drop. At a reaction temperature of 260-300 °C, and 2085 h gas hourly space velocity, the thermodynamic equilibrium conversion could be exceeded by 5-10% with this new technology. 

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