A comparison between GDP and PDP experiments of hydrogen permeation through 15 μm Pd60-Cu40% membrane thickness in a micro channel plate type reactor

Abstract

This study analyses the performance of hydrogen permeation through thin palladium 60%-copper40% alloy membrane with a thickness of 15 μm in 1 mm gap length plate micro channel reactor (PMCR) under gas driven permeation (GDP) and plasma driven permeation (PDP). Pure hydrogen gas was fed into the PMCR at atmospheric pressure and temperature range of 423–573 K. The hydrogen permeation flux plot of GDP experiment versus the inverse temperature showed a continuous increase with the PMCR heating temperature, while in PDP experiment the trend behavior showed a small peak increase at plasma applied voltage 16 kV and temperature 573 K. The energy efficiency of both experiments were determined, it was found that the energy efficiency values of GDP experiment was higher than that obtained from PDP experiment due to the total heat added to the plasma system. Further, the maximum energy efficiency of GDP experiment was 63.37% at H2 flow rate 0.1 L/min and temperature 573 K, while in PDP experiment the maximum value was 48.7% at plasma voltage 14 kV, H2 flow rate 0.1 L/min and temperature 573 K. Further, the yield ratio evaluation versus the total energy consumptions was determined, the stronger effect on yield ratio was noted when the energy added to the system increased. A comparison between the yield ratios of both experiments has been developed, it was concluded that the influence of plasma on hydrogen permeation was higher than heating effect, additionally the plasma effect increased at low temperatures. The hydrogen output energy versus the energy consumption was compared, it was observed in GDP results that the output H2 energy very low at low temperature and increased to the maximum value 20.89 W at 573 K. While in PDP results, it was seen a continuous increase with discharge voltage to reach the maximum value 20.997 W at 14 kV and temperature of 573 K.