Development of Palladium-Alloy Membranes for Hydrogen Separation and Purification

Abstract

This paper summarizes R&D activities and progress at NORAM Engineering and the University of British Columbia (UBC) on preparation and testing of thin palladium-based membranes and their applications. Most of these activities were carried out internally at NORAM, some jointly with UBC and their spin-off company, Membrane Reactor Technology (MRT) through a wide range of projects. Key results outlined in this paper include: 1) modularization and applications of foil-based Pd alloy membranes with inter-diffusion barriers; 2) preparing and characterizing thin Pd composite membranes; 3) development of Pd-Ru membranes by electroless plating for enhanced stability at higher temperatures; 4) production of palladium membranes for application in hydrogen separation and hydrogen production by fluidized bed membrane reactors.