Ethanol steam reforming in a membrane reactor with Pt-impregnated Knudsen membranes

An ethanol reforming membrane reactor (ERMR) with Pt-impregnated Knudsen membranes was investigated to achieve the improvement of ethanol conversion and hydrogen yield. The prepared Pt-impregnated membranes have high permeabilities and reaction activities for the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction. The ethanol reforming-membrane reactor showed ethanol conversion improvement of 7.4–14.4% in comparison with a conventional reactor (CR). Hydrogen yield improvement of 4.2–10.5% was also observed in ERMR with Pt-impregnated SKM in whole reaction temperature range. In addition, CO concentration was considerably reduced via water-gas shift reaction during the permeation.