High Flux Metallic Membranes for Hydrogen Recovery and Membrane Reactors

We made and tested over 250 new alloys for use as lower cost, higher flux hydrogen extraction membrane materials. Most of these were intermetallic, or contained significant intermetallic content, particularly based on B2 alloy compositions with at least one refractory component; B2 intermetallics resemble BCC alloys, in structure, but the atoms have relatively fixed positions, with one atom at the corners of the cube, the other at the centers. The target materals we were looking for would contain little or no expensive elements, no strongly toxic or radioactive elements, would have high flux to hydrogen, while being fabricable, brazable, and relatively immune to hydrogen embrittlement and corrosion in operation. The best combination of properties of the membrane materials we developed was, in my opinion, a Pd-coated membrane consisting of V -9 atomic % Pd. This material was relatively cheap, had 5 times the flux of Pd under the same pressure differential, was reasonably easy to fabricate and braze, and not bad in terms of embrittlement. Based on all these factors we project, about 1/3 the cost of Pd, on an area basis for a membrane designed to last 20 years, or 1/15 the cost on a flux basis. Alternatives tomore » this membrane replaced significant fractions of the Pd with Ni and or Co. The cost for these membranes was lower, but so was the flux. We produced successful brazed products from the membrane materials, and made them into flat sheets. We tested, unsuccessfully, several means of fabricating thematerials into tubes, and eventually built a membrane reactor using a new, flat-plate design: a disc and doughnut arrangement, a design that seems well- suited to clean hydrogen production from coal. The membranes and reactor were tested successfully at Western Research. A larger equipment company (Chart Industries) produced similar results using a different flat-plate reactor design. Cost projections of the membrane are shown to be attractive.« less