Thin Palladium Film Supported on SiO2-Modified Porous Stainless Steel for a High-Hydrogen-Flux Membrane

Performance and Long-Term Stability of Pd/PSS and Pd/Al2O3 Membranes for Hydrogen Separation

The present work is focused on the investigation of the performance and long-term stability of two composite palladium membranes under different operating conditions. One membrane (Pd/porous stainless steel (PSS)) is characterized by a ~10 µm-thick palladium layer on a porous stainless steel substrate, which is pretreated by means of surface modification and oxidation; the other membrane (Pd/Al2O3) is constituted by a ~7 µm-thick palladium layer on an asymmetric microporous Al2O3 substrate. The operating temperature and pressure ranges, used for studying the performance of these two kinds of membranes, are 350-450 °C and 200-800 kPa, respectively. The H2 permeances and the H2/N2 selectivities of both membranes were investigated and compared with literature data. At 400 °C and 200 kPa as pressure difference, Pd/PSS and Pd/Al2O3 membranes exhibited an H2/N2 ideal selectivity equal to 11700 and 6200, respectively, showing stability for 600 h. Thereafter, H2/N2 selectivity of both membranes progressively decreased and after around 2000 h, dropped dramatically to 55 and 310 for the Pd/PSS and Pd/Al2O3 membranes, respectively. As evidenced by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analyses, the pinholes appear on the whole surface of the Pd/PSS membrane and this is probably due to release of sulphur from the graphite seal rings.

Combining density functional theory and cluster expansion methods to predict H2 permeance through Pd-based binary alloy membranes

First-principles calculations offer a useful complement to experimental approaches for characterizing hydrogen permeance through dense metal membranes. A challenge in applying these methods to disordered alloys is to make quantitative predictions for the net solubility and diffusivity of interstitial H based on the spatially local information that can be obtained from first-principles calculations. In this study, we used a combination of density functional theory calculations and a cluster expansion method to describe interstitial H in alloys of composition Pd96M4, where M=Ag, Cu, and Rh. The cluster expansion approach highlights the shortcomings of simple lattice models that have been used in the past to study similar systems. We use Sieverts' law to calculate H solubility and a kinetic Monte Carlo scheme to find the diffusivity of H in PdAg, PdCu, and PdRh alloys at a temperature range of 400<or=T<or=1200 K. From these results, we are able to predict the permeability of hydrogen through membranes made from these Pd-based binary alloys.