Foam structured membrane reactor for distributed hydrogen production

Abstract

Membrane reactor is one of the most potential methods for methane steam reforming process to achieve distributed hydrogen production. Mass, heat transfer and catalyst cost are the main hurdles to achieve its scaleup and practical applications. Here, we adopt structured foam SiC to construct Foam Structured Membrane Reactor (FSMR) and conduct systematic experimental study including catalytic reaction, membrane separation and integrated membrane reactor. The results indicate that FSMR can significantly intensify radial heat transfer (e.g., increase membrane side temperature about 20 °C) and radial mass transfer (e.g., faster H2 transfer to membrane) compared to conventional particles-packed membrane reactor (PMR). The mechanism is related to 3D continuous skeleton, cellular structure, and high thermal conductivity of structured solid foam. Also, FSMR can save more than 78% catalyst amount and achieve nearly 100% catalyst utilization efficiency.