Hydrogen production and carbon dioxide enrichment using a catalytic membrane reactor with Ni metal catalyst and Pd-based membrane

We prepared a catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) by adopting a high-performance metal catalyst and Pd–Au membrane to investigate the possibility of hydrogen production concurrently with carbon dioxide enrichment (up to >80%) in a single-stage reactor from a simulated syngas of a coal gasification, via simultaneous WGS reaction and hydrogen separation process. The CO conversion was above 99% and the H2 recovery was above 94% at del-P = 30 bar in a CMR. The best result for the concentration of the enriched CO2 in the retentate side was 85.3% under the conditions of 350 °C, del-P = 30 bar and steam to carbon ratio of 2.0. These results show promise for a feasible simplified process able to achieve CO removal from a high-concentration CO mixture gas coming out of coal gasification via a water-gas shift reaction (WGS), to separate hydrogen and also to enrich CO2 for pre-combustion capture and storage of CO2 (CCS) in substitution for the conventional WGS and CO2 separation stages in integrated gasification and combined cycle process integrated with CCS.

► A catalytic membrane reactor was prepared for the H2 production and CO2 capture.
► It consisted of plate-type porous nickel metal catalysts and Pd–Au membrane.
► 99% conversion of CO, 94% recovery of H2 and 85.3% enrichment of CO2 were achieved.