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Upgrading of Simulated Syngas by Using a Nanoporous Silica Membrane Reactor
Author(s) -
Wei L.,
Kawamoto K.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
chemical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-4125
pISSN - 0930-7516
DOI - 10.1002/ceat.201200595
Subject(s) - syngas , permeance , space velocity , permeation , nanoporous , membrane , chemical engineering , materials science , porosity , chemistry , catalysis , selectivity , composite material , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , biochemistry , engineering
Abstract The permeance properties of a nanoporous silica membrane were first evaluated in a laboratory‐scale porous silica membrane reactor (MR). The results indicated that CO, CO 2 , and N 2 inhibited H 2 permeation. Increased H 2 permeability and selectivity were obtained when gas was transferred from the lumen side to the shell side. This was therefore selected as a suitable permeation direction. On this basis, upgrading of simulated syngas was experimentally investigated as a function of temperature (150 – 300 °C), feed pressure (up to 0.4 MPa), and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV), by using a nanoporous silica MR in the presence of a Cu/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 catalyst. The CO conversion obtained with the MR was significantly higher than that with a packed‐bed reactor (PBR) and broke the thermodynamic equilibrium of a PBR at 275 – 300 °C and a GHSV of 2665 h –1 . The use of a low GHSV and high feed pressure improved the CO conversion and led to the recovery of more H 2 .