Recent Developments on Supported Pd Membranes for Hydrogen Separation and Membrane Reactors

Palladium-based membranes have received growing interest for hydrogen purification and production due to their very high permeability and exclusive selectivity towards H2. In this chapter, recent advances in supported thin Pd-Ag membranes for H2 separation and membrane reactors at Tecnalia and Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) are reported. The importance of the support to obtain defect-free membranes, the effect of the temperature of permeation, the presence of other gases and H2S, and the effect of fluidizing catalyst on the permeation properties and the increase on the stability of the membranes by the deposition of a ceramic protective layer on the Pd layer are presented. The use of Pd in membrane reactors for reactions where the selective extraction of hydrogen such as WGS, reforming, and ammonia cracking are explained. Recently, H2Site opened a production line for Pd membranes capable of producing up to 12,000 membrane tubes per year. On the reactor side, the size has now reached TRL7 within the European project MACBETH.