"There is no material in nature more effcient in
separating hydrogen than palladium. Moreover,
it can stand the temperature found in common
reactors, and it enables process intensifcation:
the ability to do more steps in a smaller volume."
chemical engineering graduate of WPI. "This technology
has the potential to have a substantial impact on a number
of manufacturing processes."
The large-scale palladium membrane module that will
be tested at NCCC is capable of producing up to 25 lbs. of
hydrogen a day, 10 times the amount generated in the phase
one tests. It's being manufactured by a WPI partner, British
company Johnson Matthey, which is licensing the technology. Other partners include California-based Membrane
Technology and Research Inc. and T3 Scientifc, a Minnesota-based company founded by one of Ma's former students.
"It's always diffcult going from a laboratory to a reallife situation," says the DOE's Morreale. "But I think, if
successful, it could have tremendous impact, not only in the
power sector, but also in the chemical sector."
Whether it will help in the fght against climate change
may come down to economics, however. For now, without
a tax on carbon emissions, it remains cheaper for power
plants to send greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Ma says that although some chemical and gas companies, including Johnson Matthey and Praxair, are licensing
the technology, the government may have to provide the
energy industry with incentives to embrace high-tech solutions like WPI's membrane. "We have a lot of good science
out there, but economically it has to work," he says. "As an
engineer, that's always part of the equation." Re
Ma and Liang-Chih "Stanley" Ma, a PhD candidate in chemical engineering, demonstrate the multi-stage electroless plating process used to deposit a
thin layer of palladium onto porous stainless steel to create a membrane. The process is the basis for most of the seven patents the innovative membrane
has been awarded over the years. Opposite page: the fnished membranes; the light area in the middle of each membrane is the palladium coating.
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