Hydrogen Permeation of Pd-Cu/Alumina Composite Membranes Fabricated by Combined Sol-gel and Less-electric Plating Technique

Abstract

The demand for purified hydrogen (CO < 10 ppm) has led to the development of the use of a dense Pd or Pd alloy membrane which selectively permeates the only hydrogen to produce ultra-pure hydrogen. In this work, a combined sol-gel process and a less-electric plating technique were used to prepare Pd-Cu coated ceramic alumina membranes tube. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray(EDX) were used to characterize the membranes. Permeation tests hydrogen and nitrogen single gas were performed in a temperature range 300-500°C and with pressure range 1.08-1.38 atm. It is found that the highest hydrogen flux of 1.3 mol m2 s−1was obtained at temperature 500°C and pressure difference 0.38 atm. The highest H2/N2 selectivity of 105 was obtained at temperature 500°C and pressure difference 0.08 atm.