Simulación de un proceso de obtención y purificación de hidrógeno a partir del biogás utilizando tecnología de membrana de paladio

Abstract

The work objective dealt with simulating a hydrogen obtainment and purification process from biogas, using palladium membrane technology. The simulation was developed in a software for chemical processes using bibliographic data based on the process flow diagram scheme for a developed membrane reactor by Kim, Han, Kim, Lee, Lim, Lee and Ryi; from the proposed model, molar and mass flow values were obtained; the system behavior and the hydrogen conversion were analyzed modifying parameters such as pressure and temperature. Then a modeling of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was carried out in an analysis and resolution software by finites elements, in which the functionality of the palladium membrane was analyzed in greater depth reaching a behavior as real as possible, where the membrane operating conditions were included to obtain mass flows, concentrations, operation speed in the system and other relevant data for the study. Finally, a comparison was performed between the data obtained from the two programs versus the traditional purification process from which it was found out that the process that uses the palladium membrane technology achieves similar yields to the traditional method, however, the implementation of this technology decreases the use of more equipment. As a result, a greater production was obtained when working with the parameters of 754.9 K and 1.88 x10e05 Pa with a value of 3.26 mol / m2.s of hydrogen diffusion and a conversion of 61.23%. It is concluded that the palladium membrane can provide values as close as possible to reality according to the previous bibliographic data. It is recommended to carry out future investigations by varying the geometry and thickness of the system to identify the optimal palladium membrane design.