Hydrogen Production using Solar Membrane Reactor Technology

Abstract

Fossil fuels as energy resources are decreasing rapidly which will cause a fuel supply crisis in the future. Based on the predictions, global energy consumption has been increased significantly and will continue to rise about two times higher than now till 2050. On the other hand, the extent of the pollutions released from each of the fossil fuels made too many problems for human’s lives. Thus, the need for new energy sources has increased recently. The need of affordable and clean alternatives for fossil fuels convinced researchers to test other technologies for energy creation. For example, electrical energy produced by fuel cells is one of the perfect solutions to decrease environmental pollution due to its high efficiency, non-environmental pollution and consumption of hydrogen as a clean fuel. Generally hydrogen can be obtained from various sources such as fossil fuels (natural gas reforming of coal and natural gas), renewable resources, water electrolysis and etc. Of course, each of these processes has its advantages and disadvantages in different conditions. The solar reactor membrane technology in recent years has been proposed as an effective way to produce hydrogen from renewable sources. The purpose of this study is on hydrogen production processes using solar membrane reactor technology. Therefore, various hydrogen production methods have been proposed and the advantages and disadvantages of each method have been analyzed. The combination of membrane technology with solar technology and the developments in solar membrane systems is a good alternative to fossil fuels as a green process for hydrogen production, which is cost-effective in terms of thermal efficiency and fuel consumption rate.