CO2 SELECTIVE CERAMIC MEMBRANE FOR WATER-GAS-SHIFT REACTION WITH CONCOMITANT RECOVERY OF CO2

A high temperature membrane reactor (MR) has been developed to enhance the water-gas-shift (WGS) reaction efficiency with concomitant CO{sub 2} removal for sequestration. This improved WGS-MR with CO{sub 2} recovery capability is ideally suitable for integration into the Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) power generation system. Two different CO{sub 2}-affinity materials were selected in this study. The Mg-Al-CO{sub 3}-layered double hydroxide (LDH) was investigated as an adsorbent or a membrane for CO{sub 2} separation. The adsorption isotherm and intraparticle diffusivity for the LDH-based adsorbent were experimentally determined, and suitable for low temperature shift (LTS) of WGS. The LDH-based membranes were synthesized using our commercial ceramic membranes as substrate. These experimental membranes were characterized comprehensively in terms of their morphology, and CO{sub 2} permeance and selectivity to demonstrate the technical feasibility. In parallel, an alternative material-base membrane, carbonaceous membrane developed by us, was characterized, which also demonstrated enhanced CO{sub 2} selectivity at the LTS-WGS condition. With optimization on membrane defect reduction, these two types of membrane could be used commercially as CO{sub 2}-affinity membranes for the proposed application. Based upon the unique CO{sub 2} affinity of the LDHs at the LTS/WGS environment, we developed an innovative membrane reactor, Hybrid Adsorption and Membrane Reactor (HAMR), to achieve {approx}100% CO conversion, produce a high purity hydrogen product and deliver a concentrated CO{sub 2} stream for disposal. A mathematical model was developed to simulate this unique one -step process. Finally a benchtop reactor was employed to generate experimental data, which were consistent with the prediction from the HAMR mathematical model. In summary, the project objective, enhancing WGS efficiency for hydrogen production with concomitant CO{sub 2} removal for sequestration, has been theoretically and experimentally demonstrated via the developed one-step reactor, HAMR. Future development on reactor scale up and field testing is recommended