Abstract: Hydrogen permeation through a thin fcc-Pd0.9Cu0.1 alloy composite membrane was investigated with H2-Ar-C2H5OH- H2O mixtures for this modeling reaction over a range of temperature (250–500 °C) and pressure (160–310 kPa). The influence of temperature, feed pressure, feed flow rate, ratio of ethanol to steam, and hydrogen concentration of feed was examined under the operating conditions. Ethanol has inhibitive effect on hydrogen permeation performance through the membrane in comparison with that in pure hydrogen atmosphere. Moreover, hydrogen flux increased with increasing total mixture pressure and hydrogen concentration in the mixture feed but was not related to the ratio of ethanol to steam. Thus, the inhibitive influence of ethanol on hydrogen permeation was similar to that of steam under the same operating conditions. Although ethanol and steam can decrease hydrogen permeation, the hydrogen flux of membrane up to 11.3 m3/(m2•h) and hydrogen recovery over 62.5% were obtained in H2-Ar-C2H5OH-H2O (H2:Ar:(C2H5OH + H2O) volume ratio = 60:30:10) mixtures at 500 °C and 310 kPa. The membrane was stable without poisoning under ethanol-containing mixtures and would be suitable for the catalytic membrane reactor of steam reforming of ethanol to pure hydrogen production.

Key words: hydrogen, palladium, copper, alloy membrane, ethanol, steam reforming, catalytic membrane reactor