Evaluations of hydrogen permeability on Ti4Cr3Nb3O2(TCN)–20 wt.%Ni composite membrane by hot press sintering

• We synthesized TiO2-based powder, Ti4Cr3Nb3O2 (TCN), through sol–gel process.
• TCN–20 wt.%Ni cermet membranes were produced through Hot Press Sintering (HPS) process.
• The membranes as a result of HPS had better mechanical strength than that of CIP.
• When separating hydrogen from syngas, the membrane after HPS process would be more useful.
• TCN–20 wt.%Ni cermet membrane demonstrated high permeation of hydrogen.

Cermet (i.e., ceramic–metal composite) membrane has been gathered great attention as a medium, efficiently separating high-purity hydrogen from high temperature syngas. TiO2 membrane has been great issue, because of its high hydrogen permeability based on Knudsen diffusion as well as its remarkable mechanical, thermal, and chemical stability, which makes the membrane a subject of various type of studies. This study is related to synthesizing TiO2-based powder, Ti4Cr3Nb3O2 (TCN), through sol–gel process. Disk-type TCN–20 wt.%Ni composite membrane was produced through Hot Press Sintering (HPS), and composite powders and membranes were characterized by using XRD, BET, SEM/EDS, and TG/DSC. Sievert-typed hydrogen pressure equipment was used to measure the hydrogen permeability of TCN–20 wt.%Ni membrane. The measurement was made from room temperature to 673 K by pressuring up from 0.1 MPa to 0.3 MPa. The hydrogen permeability was successfully measured to be 1.53×10−8 mol/m s Pa1/2 under the conditions of 0.3 MPa and 673 K.