Hydrogen Generation from Renewable Sources via Membrane Reactor Technology

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2020) | Viewed by 16852

Special Issue Editors

Institute on Membrane Technology of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ITM), University of Calabria, 87030 Rende, Italy
Interests: hydrogen generation; inorganic membrane reactors; gas separation; polymeric membranes; Pd-based membranes; graphene membranes; CO2 separation; reforming reactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia, Iran
Interests: experimental and modeling of membrane reactors; silica membranes; graphene membranes; hydrogen separation and purification
Laboratory of Inorganic Membrane Reactors for Pure Hydrogen Production, Institute of Membrane Technology (ITM) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), Cubo 17/C, 87036 Rende CS, Italy
Interests: membrane; membrane reactors; hydrogen production; CO2 capture and use
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The process intensification principles applied to chemical engineering may drive the development of new processes with benefits in terms of more compact and efficient devices, lower energy consumption and reduced plant volume. Membrane reactor technology pursues the valorization of these principles and, in the last three decades, the growing interest towards membrane reactors was largely recognized, representing a valuable option to the conventional systems.

Hydrogen represents a new energy carrier, an alternative to the derivatives of fossil fuel exploitation. Meanwhile, renewable source utilization for producing hydrogen via reforming reactions may represent a viable approach to avoid the depletion of fossil fuels.

Within this context, the aim of this Special Issue is to propose a collection of membrane reactor applications to generate hydrogen from renewables via reforming reactions. Hence, modeling and experimental articles, as well as a limited number of reviews dealing with the recent advancements on the topics of this Special Issue are particularly expected.

Dr. Adolfo Iulianelli
Dr. Kamran Ghasemzadeh
Dr. Angelo Basile
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • membrane reactors and bioreactors
  • reforming reactions of renewable sources
  • hydrogen generation
  • membrane reactors modeling

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 8071 KiB  
Article
Hydrogen Production via Steam Reforming: A Critical Analysis of MR and RMM Technologies
by Giovanni Franchi, Mauro Capocelli, Marcello De Falco, Vincenzo Piemonte and Diego Barba
Membranes 2020, 10(1), 10; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/membranes10010010 - 03 Jan 2020
Cited by 69 | Viewed by 6251
Abstract
‘Hydrogen as the energy carrier of the future’ has been a topic discussed for decades and is today the subject of a new revival, especially driven by the investments in renewable electricity and the technological efforts done by high-developed industrial powers, such as [...] Read more.
‘Hydrogen as the energy carrier of the future’ has been a topic discussed for decades and is today the subject of a new revival, especially driven by the investments in renewable electricity and the technological efforts done by high-developed industrial powers, such as Northern Europe and Japan. Although hydrogen production from renewable resources is still limited to small scale, local solutions, and R&D projects; steam reforming (SR) of natural gas at industrial scale is the cheapest and most used technology and generates around 8 kg CO2 per kg H2. This paper is focused on the process optimization and decarbonization of H2 production from fossil fuels to promote more efficient approaches based on membrane separation. In this work, two emerging configurations have been compared from the numerical point of view: the membrane reactor (MR) and the reformer and membrane module (RMM), proposed and tested by this research group. The rate of hydrogen production by SR has been calculated according to other literature works, a one-dimensional model has been developed for mass, heat, and momentum balances. For the membrane modules, the rate of hydrogen permeation has been estimated according to mass transfer correlation previously reported by this research group and based on previous experimental tests carried on in the first RMM Pilot Plant. The methane conversion, carbon dioxide yield, temperature, and pressure profile are compared for each configuration: SR, MR, and RMM. By decoupling the reaction and separation section, such as in the RMM, the overall methane conversion can be increased of about 30% improving the efficiency of the system. Full article
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21 pages, 5488 KiB  
Article
Techno-Economic Assessment in a Fluidized Bed Membrane Reactor for Small-Scale H2 Production: Effect of Membrane Support Thickness
by Gioele Di Marcoberardino, Jasper Knijff, Marco Binotti, Fausto Gallucci and Giampaolo Manzolini
Membranes 2019, 9(9), 116; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/membranes9090116 - 06 Sep 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3026
Abstract
This paper investigates the influence of the support material and its thickness on the hydrogen flux in Palladium membranes in the presence of sweep gas in fluidized bed membrane reactors. The analysis is performed considering both ceramic and metallic supports with different properties. [...] Read more.
This paper investigates the influence of the support material and its thickness on the hydrogen flux in Palladium membranes in the presence of sweep gas in fluidized bed membrane reactors. The analysis is performed considering both ceramic and metallic supports with different properties. In general, ceramic supports are cheaper but suffer sealing problems, while metallic ones are more expensive but with much less sealing problems. Firstly, a preliminary analysis is performed to assess the impact of the support in the permeation flux, which shows that the membrane permeance can be halved when the H2 diffusion through the support is considered. The most relevant parameter which affects the permeation is the porosity over tortuosity ratio of the porous support. Afterward, the different supports are compared from an economic point of view when applied to a membrane reactor designed for 100 kg/day of hydrogen, using biogas as feedstock. The stainless steel supports have lower impact on the hydrogen permeation so the required membrane surface area is 2.6 m2 compared to 3.6 m2 of the best ceramic support. This ends up as 5.6 €/kg H2@20bar and 6.6 €/kg H2@700bar for the best stainless steel support, which is 3% lower than the price calculated for the best ceramic support. Full article
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8 pages, 2331 KiB  
Article
Theoretical Evaluation of Graphene Membrane Performance for Hydrogen Separation Using Molecular Dynamic Simulation
by Mahdi Nouri, Kamran Ghasemzadeh and Adolfo Iulianelli
Membranes 2019, 9(9), 110; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/membranes9090110 - 27 Aug 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2681
Abstract
The main purposes of this study are to evaluate the performance of graphene membranes in the separation/purification of hydrogen from nitrogen from a theoretical point of view using the molecular dynamic (MD) simulation method, and to present details about molecular mechanisms of selective [...] Read more.
The main purposes of this study are to evaluate the performance of graphene membranes in the separation/purification of hydrogen from nitrogen from a theoretical point of view using the molecular dynamic (MD) simulation method, and to present details about molecular mechanisms of selective gas diffusion through nanoscale pores of graphene membranes at the simulated set conditions. On the other hand, permeance and perm-selectivity are two significant parameters of such a membrane that can be controlled by several variables such as pressure gradient, pore density, pore layer angles etc. Hence, in this work, the hydrogen and nitrogen permeating fluxes as well as the H2/N2 ideal perm-selectivity are investigated from a theoretical point of view in a two-layer nanoporous graphene (NPG) membrane through classical MD simulations, wherein the effects of pressure gradient, pore density, and pore angle on the NPG membrane performance are evaluated and discussed. Simulation outcomes suggest that hydrogen and nitrogen permeating fluxes increase as a consequence of an increment of pressure gradient across the membrane and pore density. Full article
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Review

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30 pages, 1522 KiB  
Review
Recent Progresses in Application of Membrane Bioreactors in Production of Biohydrogen
by Bahman Jabbari, Elham Jalilnejad, Kamran Ghasemzadeh and Adolfo Iulianelli
Membranes 2019, 9(8), 100; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/membranes9080100 - 10 Aug 2019
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 3755
Abstract
Biohydrogen is a clean and viable energy carrier generated through various green and renewable energy sources such as biomass. This review focused on the application of membrane bioreactors (MBRs), emphasizing the combination of these devices with biological processes, for bio-derived hydrogen production. Direct [...] Read more.
Biohydrogen is a clean and viable energy carrier generated through various green and renewable energy sources such as biomass. This review focused on the application of membrane bioreactors (MBRs), emphasizing the combination of these devices with biological processes, for bio-derived hydrogen production. Direct biophotolysis, indirect biophotolysis, photo-fermentation, dark fermentation, and conventional techniques are discussed as the common methods of biohydrogen production. The anaerobic process membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) technology is presented and discussed as a preferable choice for producing biohydrogen due to its low cost and the ability of overcoming problems posed by carbon emissions. General features of AnMBRs and operational parameters are comprehensively overviewed. Although MBRs are being used as a well-established and mature technology with many full-scale plants around the world, membrane fouling still remains a serious obstacle and a future challenge. Therefore, this review highlights the main benefits and drawbacks of MBRs application, also discussing the comparison between organic and inorganic membranes utilization to determine which may constitute the best solution for providing pure hydrogen. Nevertheless, research is still needed to overcome remaining barriers to practical applications such as low yields and production rates, and to identify biohydrogen as one of the most appealing renewable energies in the future. Full article
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