Membrane process design for biohydrogen purification with simultaneous CO2 capture: Feasibility and techno-economic assessment

• Published in: Chemical engineering science 2023-12, Vol.282, p.119219, Article 119219
• Main Authors: Xu, Wenqi, Lindbråthen, Arne, Janakiram, Saravanan, Ansaloni, Luca, Lei, Linfeng, Deng, Liyuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dark fermentative biohydrogen; Hydrogen purification: CO2 capture; Membrane process; Techno-economic assessment
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2023.119219

[Display omitted] •A process using CO2-selective membranes was designed for dark fermentative bio-hydrogen purification.•The optimized two-stage process enables H2 purification of 99.5 % purity at a low cost of 0.156$/Nm3.•A 3rd-stage membrane is added to achieve simultaneous CO2 capture obtaining various CO2 purities.•The benefits of using H2-selective or CO2-selective membrane in the 3rd-stage is analyzed and compared. In this work, a membrane separation process is designed and optimized to purify dark fermentative biohydrogen by removing CO2. A CO2-selective PVAm-based nanocomposite membrane was selected considering its high CO2/H2 separation performance and unique features suitable for the process. We tested the membrane performances under the separation conditions to provide a more accurate simulation basis. Several design scenarios were investigated. A two-stage process with a recycle stream is determined as the optimal design, in which the specific cost for purifying H2 to 99.5 vol% with H2 loss of