Techno-economic feasibility analysis on carbon membranes for hydrogen purification

Abstract

Abstract H 2 production from a biomass fermentation process provides a great opportunity for green and sustainability economy compared to use fossil fuels (e.g., steam methane reforming process), but the process usually produces a humidified gas containing 35–65 (vol.%) H 2 and 40–50 (vol.%) CO 2 . A novel, energy efficient two-stage carbon membrane system for H 2 purification based on the combination of H 2 selective carbon molecular sieve membranes in the first stage and CO 2 selective carbon membranes in the second stage was proposed. The concept is the first unique technology providing a low H 2 purification cost 2 produced at a feed pressure of 20 bara based on process simulation and cost estimation. The produced high purity CO 2 (>95 vol.%) and H 2 (>99.5 vol.%) can be integrated into a gasification reformer and Fischer-Tropsch reactors to improve the biodiesel productivity from biomass.