Sulfur Poisoning of Metal Membranes for Hydrogen Separation

Abstract – Many industrial chemical processes attempt to produce inexpensive purified hydrogen for use in industrial applications and in fuel cell power systems. Hydrogen-permeable metal membranes made of palladium and its alloys are the most widely used for hydrogen separation due to their high hydrogen permeability and their ideally infinite hydrogen selectivity. However, sulfur poisoning has been found to have negative effects on the performance of these materials. The goal of this paper is to present experimental and theoretical information that has been published in the open literature on the mechanism of sulfur poisoning of palladium membranes. Studies based upon the reduction mechanism of transition metals have been included when relevant to the subject of this work. The collected information has been critically reviewed an