(504e) Inorganic Membranes for the Separation of Hydrogen from Coal-Derived Synthesis Gas

The
United States of America is committed to a future hydrogen economy but
hydrogen is not available as an elemental resource.  There are many methods for
producing hydrogen including coal gasification, from natural gas, and using
nuclear energy.  Coal gasification offers one of the most versatile and
cleanest ways to convert the energy content of coal into hydrogen.  Rather than
burning coal directly, gasification breaks down coal or virtually any carbon
based feedstock into its basic chemical constituents.  Effective recovery of
hydrogen from gas mixtures then becomes a central issue.  The Oak Ridge
National Laboratory (ORNL) has a versatile process to fabricate inorganic membranes
having pore sizes ranging from less than 1 nanometer to over 20 micrometers
with virtually no materials limitations.  Proper materials selection and
tailoring of pore size is the key to fabricating a membrane having a long
lifetime with a high separation factor and high flux.  We will present
information and data relative to recent advances in the development at ORNL of
microporous inorganic membranes for high temperature hydrogen separation.  Laboratory
and pilot-scale testing data on these membranes will be presented and new
insights into diffusion mechanisms will be included in the discussion.

* The
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S.
Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725.  Accordingly, the
U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or
reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so,
for U.S. Government purposes.