Ceramic membranes having less than 1nm size pores have great potential for gas
separation at high temperature due to their good thermal stability. Moreover, nanoporous silicon
carbide membrane has potential application under hydrothermal condition at high temperature
since it is highly stable at high temperature. In this research, nanoporous SiC membrane has
been developed on porous alumina support using preceramic polymer. Pore size of the SiC
membrane was controlled using polystylene(PS) as the pore forming agent. The SiC membrane
having controlled pore size was characterized with SEM, EDS, FT-IR, XRD and pore size
measurement. The hydrogen permeability and selectivity toward nitrogen gas of the developed
membrane were 0.3 x 10-6 mole/m2.s.pa and 4.1, respectively. The nanoporous hydrogen selective
SiC membrane shows promising application in membrane reactor for steam reforming reacti
on of natural gas, water gas shift reactions and hydrogen separation from coal gasification such
as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC).
Hydrogen separation by ceramic membranes in coal gasification
