Source - 2005 R&D 100 Awards Recognizing the Best in Innovation
2005 R&D 100 Award, Energy/EnvironmentalGetting More from Hydrocarbon Feedstock
The ability to utilize hydrocarbons and carbonaceous materials as a feedstock to simultaneously produce hydrogen and sequester carbon dioxide has been facilitated by the creation of Intermediate Temperature Hydrogen Transport Membranes, developed by researchers at Eltron Research, Boulder, Colo. These dense hydrogen membranes operate between 350° and 450° C and possess permeability one order of magnitude higher than for palladium, under experimental conditions. Furthermore, the membrane constituents are more than two orders of magnitude less expensive than palladium. And because they are physically rugged, these membranes can easily serve as self-supporting membranes, operating for thousands of hours at ambient pressure, and hundreds of hours under pressure differentials up to 700 psi. Possible applications for this technology include: Alkane dehydrogenation or coupling, butane to isobutylene conversion, and aromatic upgrading.