Investigation of Novel Membrane Technologies for Hydrogen Separation

Title of document: INVESTIGATION OF NOVEL MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGIES FOR HYDROGEN SEPARATION William M. Van Cleave, Master of Science, 2017 Thesis directed by: Professor Ashwani K. Gupta Department of Mechanical Engineering The production of hydrogen gas via its separation from multicomponent syngas derived from biomass is an important process in the burgeoning carbon-neutral hydrogen economy. Current methods utilize membranes made from expensive materials such as palladium or bulky pressure vessels that use adsorption properties. Holey graphene and doped perovskite ceramics are alternative membrane materials that are relatively inexpensive and easily produced. A range of holey graphene membranes was produced using dry pressing and other techniques, including high temperature reduction, to examine the efficiency of this material. Experimental results using these holey graphene membranes are presented from a lab-scale facility designed to test various membrane types. These results showed decreasing flux and increasing selectivity as membrane thickness increased. Comparison with results from literature indicate these membranes exhibit higher overall flux but lower selectivity when compared to palladium-based membrane technologies. INVESTIGATION OF NOVEL MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGIES FOR HYDROGEN SEPARATION