Techno-economic feasibility analysis on carbon membranes for hydrogen purification

H2 production from a biomass fermentation process provides a great opportunity for green and sustainability economy compared to use fossil fuels (e.g., steam methane reforming process), but the process usually produces a humidified gas containing 35-65 (vol.%) H2 and 40-50 (vol.%) CO2. A novel, energy efficient two-stage carbon membrane system for H2 purification based on the combination of H2 selective carbon molecular sieve membranes in the first stage and CO2 selective carbon membranes in the second stage was proposed. The concept is the first unique technology providing a low H2 purification cost <1 $/kg H2 produced at a feed pressure of 20 bara based on process simulation and cost estimation. The produced high purity CO2 (>95 vol.%) and H2 (>99.5 vol.%) can be integrated into a gasification reformer and Fischer-Tropsch reactors to improve the biodiesel productivity from biomass.