Advances in ion transport membrane technology for oxygen and syngas production

Several decades of research by Air Products and Ceramatec have recently culminated in the construction and operation of a test unit with the capacity to produce up to 100 tons per day of oxygen using planar, ceramic mixed conducting, ion transport membranes (ITM). In the first tonnage operation of this unit, over 16 tons/day of oxygen were produced. Smaller scale experiments demonstrated high purity oxygen production for over 15,000 hours. A parallel development effort has produced planar ceramic mixed conducting membranes to partially oxidize methane to produce syngas.