Issue 5, 2023

Modeling-aided coupling of catalysts, conditions, membranes, and reactors for efficient hydrogen production from ammonia

Abstract

The production of high-purity, pressurized hydrogen from ammonia decomposition in a membrane catalytic reactor is a feasible technology. However, because of the multiple coupled parameters involved in the design of this technology, there are extensive opportunities for its intensification. We investigated the coupling between the type of catalyst, process conditions, type of membrane, and reactor operation (isothermal and non-isothermal) in the catalytic decomposition of ammonia. First, we developed an agnostic dimensionless model and calculated the kinetic parameters for a set of lab-made Ru- and Co-based catalysts and the permeation parameters of a Pd–Au membrane. The non-isothermal model for the Pd–Au membrane reactor was validated with the experiments using Co-based catalysts. Finally, we analyzed the coupling conditions based on the model predictions, results obtained in the literature and our experimental results, including several case studies. The thorough analysis led us to identify optimized combinations of catalyst–conditions–membrane–reactor that yield similar or improved results compared to the ones of Ru-based catalyst in a non-membrane reactor. Our results indicate that optimizing a single factor, such as the catalyst, may not lead to the desired outcome and a more holistic approach is necessary to produce pressurized and pure hydrogen efficiently.

Graphical abstract: Modeling-aided coupling of catalysts, conditions, membranes, and reactors for efficient hydrogen production from ammonia

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Sep 2022
Accepted
02 Feb 2023
First published
02 Feb 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

React. Chem. Eng., 2023,8, 989-1004

Modeling-aided coupling of catalysts, conditions, membranes, and reactors for efficient hydrogen production from ammonia

N. Realpe, S. R. Kulkarni, J. L. Cerrillo, N. Morlanés, G. Lezcano, S. P. Katikaneni, S. N. Paglieri, M. Rakib, B. Solami, J. Gascon and P. Castaño, React. Chem. Eng., 2023, 8, 989 DOI: 10.1039/D2RE00408A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements