Integrated membrane/PSA systems for hydrogen recovery from gas mixtures

This paper is focused on the recovery of hydrogen from multicomponent gas mixtures by integrated membrane/PSA system. The paper presents the following results: computational estimation of the five-component mixture (H(2)/CO/CO(2)/N(2)/H(2)S) separation by means of membrane modules; estimation of the integrated membrane/PSA system efficiency; experimental results of gas mixtures separation by integrated membrane/PSA system with commercially available membranes (GENERON hollow fiber membrane module and PVTMS flat sheet membrane module). The influence of a purge to feed ratio, pressure, half cycle time and feed composition on the PSA performance was studied. The H(2)S, CO and H(2)O permeability through the membranes was estimated by means of the correlation analysis. It was shown that in some cases H(2) recovery degree can achieve 90-97% for bio-synthesis gas and petrochemical gas if H(2) concentration was equal 70% after pre-concentration at the membrane stage. The experiments were carried out using model gas mixtures (O(2)/N(2) and He/CO(2)/O(2) which imitate H(2)/CO(2)/CO mixture). Obtained results could be considerably improved by application of new membrane materials and new adsorbents.