Novel hollow fiber membrane reactor for high purity H2 generation from thermal catalytic NH3 decomposition

Abstract

Although storage of H2 in various liquid chemicals makes it very attractive for practical applications, production and purification of H2 from decomposition of these chemicals under relatively mild conditions is still challenging. In this work, we reported production of high-purity H2 from NH3 decomposition using a combined packed bed/membrane reactor loaded with Ru-based catalyst. Three types of membranes (modified MFI zeolite membrane, carbon molecular sieve membrane, and Pd/Ag membrane) were employed and compared for H2 production and purification from NH3 decomposition. All these membrane reactors exhibited high NH3 conversion of >99% with H2 recovery of >90% under pressurized NH3 feed of 7 bar. Nevertheless, H2 purity varied because of the different separation performance of these membranes. High H2 purity of >99.999% with <10 ppb NH3 concentration in permeate was achieved using high-quality Pd/Ag membrane reactor. These results suggest a feasible and highly energy efficient option for producing high-purity H2 from NH3 decomposition.