Abstract
Nowadays, nitrogen is mainly produced from air by cryogenic separation, pressure-swing adsorption (PSA) and polymeric membrane technology. In this paper, we report a perovskite membrane-based nitrogen production route, which is basically driven by methane combustion. By coupling air separation with methane combustion on the opposite sides of oxygen-permeable perovskite membrane, most of oxygen in air is efficiently removed through the perovskite membrane and then consumed by methane oxidation. A nitrogen production rate of ca. 23 cm3 min−1 with purity of 98–99% was successfully achieved, and remained stable over 120 h, with a methane conversion of 71–73% on the other side of perovskite membrane. This work demonstrates that the joint use of oxygen-permeable perovskite membrane and methane oxidation is a promising strategy for nitrogen production and inspires more research efforts in the field of gas separation.
Highlights
Nitrogen, which constitutes 78% by volume of air, is extensively applied in chemical industry, e.g., as purging gas for pipelines (Bernardo and Drioli, 2010; Ivanova and Lewis, 2012) or as feed gas in ammonia synthesis (Kyriakou et al, 2017)
The influences of porous catalytic layer, methane concentration and operation temperatures on nitrogen production were investigated, and the feasibility of producing nitrogen with the purity of 98–99% have been demonstrated by using perovskite BCFZ hollow-fiber membrane
It was reported that BCFZ oxide remained its perovskite structure during the temperature increasing from 30 to 1000◦C, with a heating rate of 5◦C/min (Wang et al, 2005)
Summary
Nitrogen, which constitutes 78% by volume of air, is extensively applied in chemical industry, e.g., as purging gas for pipelines (Bernardo and Drioli, 2010; Ivanova and Lewis, 2012) or as feed gas in ammonia synthesis (Kyriakou et al, 2017). Jiang et al (2010b) reported that, the oxygen permeation flux of a perovskite BaCoxFeyZr1−x−yO3−δ (BCFZ) hollow-fiber membrane increased from 3.3 to 8 cm3 min−1 cm−2 when methane was fed on shell side at 875◦C. The influences of porous catalytic layer, methane concentration and operation temperatures on nitrogen production were investigated, and the feasibility of producing nitrogen with the purity of 98–99% have been demonstrated by using perovskite BCFZ hollow-fiber membrane.
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