Abstract
Hydrogen is one of the most important chemicals used in industry today. In addition, hydrogen is prospected as an energy carrier for the future, since the energy contained in the molecule can be efficiently converted to electric energy in fuel cells for different applications. Different requirements exist to hydrogen purity or hydrogen gas mixture composition, depending on the application, and different separation technologies are therefore applied. Membranes with good permeation properties and high selectivity to hydrogen have been identified to represent potential production technology to give efficiency improvement and cost reduction, provided they have sufficiently high reliability and low cost. Pd and certain Pd alloy compositions are known to easily absorb and diffuse hydrogen in the solid matrix, and can hence be applied in membrane separation with 100 % selectivity. So far, few commercial applications have emerged due to cost and/or performance of the existing membranes, but continuous improvements have been made over more than 40 years of research and development.
This chapter will give a review on the recent progress made in the Pd-based membrane and membrane reactor development, and describe applications in various hydrogen production processes. The intention is to give the reader insight about the status and to pin-point some trends and main challenges related to Pd-based membranes for hydrogen production.
This chapter will give a review on the recent progress made in the Pd-based membrane and membrane reactor development, and describe applications in various hydrogen production processes. The intention is to give the reader insight about the status and to pin-point some trends and main challenges related to Pd-based membranes for hydrogen production.