Ultra-pure hydrogen (>99.9999%) has wide applications in strategic emerging industries such as electronics, semiconductor, LED and polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic power generation. Compared to currently available technologies, Pd composite membranes can significantly reduce the cost of both investment and operation. Lately, the group of DNL1902 (led by Prof. Hengyong Xu) at DICP has successfully demonstrated an industrial-scale ultra-pure hydrogen purification plant at a capacity above 800 m3/h with proprietary high performance Pd composite membranes, which marks animportant milestone in the development of this technology.
During the field tests, the industrial-scale demonstration plant reached hydrogen purity up to 99.99995% at a capacity of 847 m3/h and H2 recovery of 91.2% with 99.92% purity H2 as the feed gas.
Simultaneously, the technology demonstration plant achieved hydrogen purity up to 99.999999% at a capacity of 30.66 m3/h and hydrogen recovery of 91.68% with 99.9995% purity H2 as the feed gas.
These two demonstration plants integrated an array of cutting-edge technologiesduring the design, construction and operation, and receivedhigh appraisal from the expert panel organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology. This research is financed by the 863 Program “The investigation and large-scale manufacturing of ultra- pure hydrogen separation membrane materials”, and received comprehensive support from Zhejiang Haitian Gas Co., Ltd., China. (Author:Prof. Hengyong Xu,Photo:Shoufu Hou).
