Development of a catalytic hollow fibre membrane micro-reactor for high purity H2 production

This article describes development of a catalytic hollow fibre membrane micro-reactor (CHFMMR) for high purity H-2 production. Asymmetric Al2O3 hollow fibres produced by a phase-inversion and sintering technique were employed as a single substrate for both coating of the Pd membrane and impregnation of the 30%CuO/CeO2 catalyst. The Pd membrane was first deposited onto the outer layer of Al2O3 hollow fibre using the electroless plating (ELP) technique, followed by impregnation of the 30%CuO/CeO2 catalyst into the inner finger-like structure of the substrate using the sol-gel Pechini method. Performance of the proposed reactor was carried out using water gas shift (WGS) reaction as a sample reaction. A comparative study of conversion obtained in the WGS reaction as a function of the reaction temperature (from 200 degrees C to 500 degrees C) in a fixed-bed reactor, a catalytic hollow fibre micro-reactor (CHFMR) and the CHFMMR using different flow rates of a sweep gas (from 45 to 70 ml/min) was performed, concluding that the conversion is the highest in the CHFMMR. It is important to highlight that, at 500 degrees C and a sweep gas flow rate of 75 ml/min, a conversion of 17% higher than the corresponding thermodynamic equilibrium conversion was achieved in the CHFMMR. In the operation of the CHFMMR, high purity H-2 has been obtained in the shell side, which was 78% of the total H-2 produced in the WGS reaction. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.