Development of a palladium based membrane reactor system for production of ultra-pure hydrogen from liquefied petroleum gas

Abstract

Hydrogen is widely regarded as the clean energy carrier for future use in both transportation and electricity sectors. It has become an important new focus as an alternative fuel for cleaner energy technologies especially in the Polymer Exchange Membranes (PEM) fuel cells. However, specific technical and marketing demands must be met by a fuel processor for ultra-pure hydrogen production and at a very competitive cost. Liquid Petroleum gas (LPG) is seen as a potential source for low cost hydrogen production due to its relatively high energy density, easy storage and well-established infrastructure for fuel. There is a growing interest in the use of membrane in reaction engineering with the selective separation of the products from the reaction mixture provided opportunities to achieve higher conversion. Membrane separation technologies have potential to reduce operating costs, minimise unit operations and lower energy consumption. The overall goal of this project is to investigate the engineering feasibility associated performance of employing a palladium or palladium alloy membrane reactor for the production of ultra-pure hydrogen from the products of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pre-reformer in determining the optimal process conditions for the production of high purity hydrogen from the LPG feedstock and evaluating of the performance of a Pd-based membrane in relation to maximizing the yield of hydrogen from the feedstock as well as minimizing the CO content of the reformate.