Impact of support mass flow resistance on low-temperature H2 permeation characteristics of a Pd95Ag5/Al2O3 composite membrane

High Proton-Conductive and Temperature-Tolerant PVC-P4VP Membranes towards Medium-Temperature Water Electrolysis

Water electrolysis (WE) is a highly promising approach to producing clean hydrogen. Medium-temperature WE (100–350 °C) can improve the energy efficiency and utilize the low-grade water vapor. Therefore, a high-temperature proton-conductive membrane is desirable to realize the medium-temperature WE. Here, we present a polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-poly(4vinylpyridine) (P4VP) hybrid membrane by a simple cross-linking of PVC and P4VP. The pyridine groups of P4VP promote the loading rate of phosphoric acid, which delivers the proton conductivity of the PVC-P4VP membrane. The optimized PVC-P4VP membrane with a 1:2 content ratio offers the maximum proton conductivity of 4.3 × 10⁻² S cm⁻¹ at 180 °C and a reliable conductivity stability in 200 h at 160 °C. The PVC-P4VP membrane electrode is covered by an IrO₂ anode, and a Pt/C cathode delivers not only the high water electrolytic reactivity at 100–180 °C but also the stable WE stability at 180 °C.

Microstructural Investigation and On-Site Repair of Thin Pd-Ag Alloy Membranes

Pd membranes act in an important role in H2 purification and H2 production in membrane reactors. Pd-Ag alloy membranes fabricated by consecutive electroless- and electroplating process on alumina tubes exhibited good stability under stringent heating/cooling cycles at a ramp rate of 10 K/min, imitating practical fast initiation or emergency shutdown conditions. Bilayer Pd-Ag membranes can form dense and uniform alloy after thermal treatment for 24 h at 823 K under H2 atmosphere, despite a porous structure due to the development of liquid-like properties above Tamman temperature to enforce the migrativity. On the contrary, alloying under N2 atmosphere resulted in a Pd-enriched layer. This led to a lower H2 flux but superior thermal stability compared to that alloying under H2 atmosphere. The trilayer approach of electroless-plated Pd, electro-polated Ag and electroless-plated Pd is not suitable to achieve homogeneous Pd-Ag alloys, which, on the other hand, presented the occurrence of a small gap between top Pd layer and middle Ag layer, probably due to insufficient wetting during plating process. An on-site repair treatment in analogous to MOCVD (Metal-organic Chemical Vapor Deposition) process was first proposed to extend the lifetime of Pd-Ag membrane, i.e., by vaporizing, and subsequent decomposition of Ag(OOCC2F5) powders to "preferentially" block the pinholes under vacuum and at working temperature of ca. 473-673 K, which effectively reduced the N2 flux by 57.4% compared to the initial value. The H2 flux, however, declined by 16.7% due to carbon deposition on the membrane surface, which requires further investigation. This approach shows some potential for on-site repair without disassembly or cooling to room temperature.

Techno-Economic Assessment in a Fluidized Bed Membrane Reactor for Small-Scale H2 Production: Effect of Membrane Support Thickness

This paper investigates the influence of the support material and its thickness on the hydrogen flux in Palladium membranes in the presence of sweep gas in fluidized bed membrane reactors. The analysis is performed considering both ceramic and metallic supports with different properties. In general, ceramic supports are cheaper but suffer sealing problems, while metallic ones are more expensive but with much less sealing problems. Firstly, a preliminary analysis is performed to assess the impact of the support in the permeation flux, which shows that the membrane permeance can be halved when the H₂ diffusion through the support is considered. The most relevant parameter which affects the permeation is the porosity over tortuosity ratio of the porous support. Afterward, the different supports are compared from an economic point of view when applied to a membrane reactor designed for 100 kg/day of hydrogen, using biogas as feedstock. The stainless steel supports have lower impact on the hydrogen permeation so the required membrane surface area is 2.6 m² compared to 3.6 m² of the best ceramic support. This ends up as 5.6 €/kg H_2@20bar and 6.6 €/kg H_2@700bar for the best stainless steel support, which is 3% lower than the price calculated for the best ceramic support.

Morphology and N₂ Permeance of Sputtered Pd-Ag Ultra-Thin Film Membranes

The influence of the temperature during the growth of Pd-Ag films by PVD magnetron sputtering onto polished silicon wafers was studied in order to avoid the effect of the support roughness on the layer growth. The surfaces of the Pd-Ag membrane films were analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the results indicate an increase of the grain size from 120 to 250–270 nm and film surface roughness from 4–5 to 10–12 nm when increasing the temperature from around 360–510 K. After selecting the conditions for obtaining the smallest grain size onto silicon wafer, thin Pd-Ag (0.5–2 µm thick) films were deposited onto different types of porous supports to study the influence of the porous support, layer thickness and target power on the selective layer microstructure and membrane properties. The Pd-Ag layers deposited onto ZrO₂ 3-nm top layer supports (smallest pore size among all tested) present high N₂ permeance in the order of 10⁻⁶ mol·m⁻²·s⁻¹·Pa⁻¹ at room temperature.

PdxAgy alloy nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide as efficient electrocatalyst for ethanol oxidation in alkaline medium

Well-dispersed Pd_xAg_y alloy nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets (Pd_xAg_y/RGO) are successfully synthesized by in situ reduction precipitation using hydrothermal synthesis method.

Structural and permeation kinetic correlations in PdCuAg membranes

Addition of Ag is a promising way to enhance the H2 permeability of sulfur-tolerant PdCu membranes for cleanup of coal-derived hydrogen. We investigated a series of PdCuAg membranes with at least 70 atom % Pd to elucidate the interdependence between alloy structure and H2 permeability. Membranes were prepared via sequential electroless plating of Pd, Ag, and Cu onto ceramic microfiltration membranes and subsequent alloying at elevated temperatures. Alloy formation was complicated by a wide miscibility gap in the PdCuAg phase diagram at the practically feasible operation temperatures. X-ray diffraction showed that the lattice constants of the fully alloyed ternary alloys obey Vegard's law closely. In general, H2 permeation rates increased with increasing Ag and decreasing Cu content of the membranes in the investigated temperature range. Detailed examination of the permeation kinetics revealed compensation between activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the corresponding H2 permeation laws. The origin of this effect is discussed. Further analysis showed that the activation energy for H2 permeation decreases overall with increasing lattice constant of the ternary alloy. The combination of these correlations results in a structure-function relationship that will facilitate rational design of PdCuAg membranes.

Hydrogen-induced high-temperature segregation in palladium silver membranes

Growth of Ag-depleted crystallites on PdAg membranes reduces H₂ permeation rates substantially above 823 K but can be reversed in N₂.

A green approach to ethyl acetate: quantitative conversion of ethanol through direct dehydrogenation in a Pd-Ag membrane reactor

Pincers do the trick: The conversion of ethanol to ethyl acetate and hydrogen was achieved using a pincer-Ru catalyst in a Pd-Ag membrane reactor. Near quantitative conversions and yields could be achieved without the need for acid or base promoters or hydrogen acceptors (see scheme).

Hydrogen electrosorption into Pd-Cd nanostructures

Hydrogen-absorbing materials are crucial for both the purification and storage of hydrogen. Pd and Pd-based alloys have been studied extensively for their use as both hydrogen dissociation catalysts and hydrogen selective membrane materials. It is known that incorporating metal atoms of different sizes into the Pd lattice has a major impact on the hydrogen absorption process. In this paper, hydrogen electrosorption into nanostructured Pd-Cd alloys has been studied for different compositions of Cd that varied from 0 to 15 at. %. The low cost of Cd makes it an attractive material to combine with Pd for hydrogen sorption. A combination of chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetric experiments was used to determine the ratio of the H/(Pd + Cd) and the kinetics of hydrogen sorption into these Pd-Cd alloys at different potentials. It was found that the maximum H/(Pd + Cd) value was 0.66 for pure Pd, and this decreased with increasing the amount of Cd. Also, the alpha (solid solution) to beta phase (metal hydride) hydrogen transition was determined to be the slowest step in the absorption process and was practically eliminated when an optimum amount of Cd atoms was doped (i.e., Pd-Cd(15%)). With increasing the amount of Cd, more hydrogen was absorbed into the Pd-Cd nanostructures at the higher potentials (the alpha phase region). The faster kinetics, along with the decrease in the phase transition of hydrogen sorption into the Pd-Cd nanostructures when compared to pure Pd, makes the Pd-Cd nanostructures attractive for use as a hydrogen dissociation catalytic capping layer for other metal hydrides or as a hydrogen selective membrane.