Hybrid silica membranes for oxy-fuel conversion membrane reactors

1. Hybrid silica membranes for oxy-fuel conversion membrane reactors PhD. Student: M. ten Hove, MSc Phone: +31 53 489 2998 Thesis advisor: prof.dr.ir. A. Nijmeijer E-mail: m.tenhove@utwente.nl Supervisor: dr. A.J.A. Winnubst URL: http://www.utwente.nl/tnw/im Research group: Inorganic Membranes Research school: - Supported by: ADEM Period: 02/2011 – 01/2015 • Introduction • The growing energy demand combined with increasing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions is driving the research towards the development of processes with integrated CO2 capture. • In this research a hybrid silica membrane is developed to be used in a water gas shift membrane reactor, enabling pre-combustion carbon capture. • Membrane preparation • A metal doped hybrid silica sol was prepared by co-condensation of 1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane (BTESE) with a zirconium precursor. • Hybrid silica membranes were prepared by dip‑coating a diluted sol onto a γ-alumina membrane. The membranes were calcined at 400 °C in nitrogen atmosphere. • Results • A monomodal particle size distribution with an average particle size of 5 nm was obtained for the zirconium doped BTESE sol. • Nitrogen adsorption on unsupported membrane materials shows a densification effect upon doping with zirconium. • By varying the dip sol concentration a maximum H2/CO2 selectivity of 12 is obtained for Zr‑BTESE with a dip sol concentration of 0.2 mol/L. • Acknowlegdement • We acknowledge financial support for this research from ADEM, A green Deal in Energy Materials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of The Netherlands (www.adem-innovationlab.nl). Gas permeation results for undoped and Zr-doped BTESE membranes. The values in brackets correspond to the Si+Zr concentration in the dip sol in mol/L. Cross sectional SEM image of Zr-BTESE[0.2] deposited on a γ-alumina coated α-alumina support