Design and fabrication of large-sized planar oxygen transport membrane components for direct integration in oxy-combustion processes

Membrane-based oxy-combustion is a promising technology for energy efficient combustion of carbon-containing fuels with the simultaneous opportunity to capture CO2 from the resulting exhaust gas. However, oxy-combustion conditions result in special demands on the design of the ceramic membrane components due to the high pressure and temperature applied. Therefore, we have developed a planar membrane design for 4-end operation using asymmetric membranes of La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3−δ. FEM and CFD simulations have been performed in order to develop an internal channel structure that allows withstanding pressures of 5 bar on the feed side while achieving the desired O2 concentrations of 27% in the sweep gas, i.e. CO2, and an oxygen recovery rate from the feed gas of 86% at the same time.Due to the symmetric design of the membrane components, they are scalable and adaptable in size. This design has been realized in a process chain from powder to the final component consisting of thin 20 µm Membrane layer, support with 38% porosity, an inner channelled architecture and a thin (3–5 µm) porous activation layer. Particular emphasis was laid on scalable manufacturing processes in order to ensure transferability to industrial scale. The process chain is also applicable to other membrane materials suitable for any application of interest. Finally, the reproducible processing was successfully demonstrated by the fabrication of membrane components in lengths of 100 mm and widths of 70 mm