Improvement of Performance of Selective CO2 Facilitated Transport Membrane in Hydrogen Station

The cost reduction of hydrogen stations is a must in order to spread fuel cell vehicles. Generally, the PSA device in the hydrogen station occupies 30% of the construction cost. We have already proposed the cost reduction by replacing the PSA and CO shift converter with a membrane reactor to which CO2 selective facilitated transport membrane is built in 2011. Although the CO2 facilitated transport membrane achieved the CO2/H2 selectivity of 100 or more even if the operation temperature was 160°C, the durability was poor. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the heat resistance and the rate of reaction between carrier and CO2 furthermore so that it can be adopted for the membrane reactor. In order to improve the membrane performance at 160°C by keeping high water content of membrane, graphite rubbish was added to the membrane as it was expected to function as grain for water absorption. As a result, the CO2 selectivity of the membrane improved more than that of the previous membrane by 3 times.