Hydrogen purification with CO2-selective facilitated transport membranes

H2 is an important industrial gas, and high purity H2 is required for applications. Recent advances in both H2-selective and CO2-selective membranes for H2 purification are reviewed with an emphasis on the development of CO2-selective facilitated transport membranes for H2 purification. With CO2-selective facilitated transport membranes, examples of high-pressure and low-pressure H2 purification applications are discussed. In high-pressure H2 purification in the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) operation, experimental and modeling results demonstrated the potential of amine-containing facilitated transport membranes to achieve an economically attractive cost of electricity. CO2-selective membranes for low-pressure H2 purification for fuel cells have been developed for both PEMFC and SOFC. The membranes have been scaled-up, and they have shown promising gas transport performances for the respective applications.