Kina - Membrane reactor for bio-hydrogen production (project initiation)

The increasing awareness of adverse effects of climate gasses has resulted in the search for more efficient and new technologies that minimize emissions. Biomass as fuel is regarded as neutral in respect to climate gas emission and can therefore be an alt ernative to non-renewable polluting fossil fuels. Converting biomass to hydrogen and apply fuel cells to generate electricity will give higher energy efficiency compared to burning bio-fuel. Especially, in case of a small onsite power generation, fuel ce lls are energy and cost effective systems. A technology to produce hydrogen from biomass is the key process to realize such an environmental friendly system. Elemental technologies such as fermentation, gasification, liquid separations, gas separations an d ethanol/methane conversions have been studied and developed independently. However, there is little study to combine these elemental technologies and to further develop them for an optimum combined system. In this project, ethanol selective membranes an d hydrogen selective membranes will be studied, and these membranes will be combined with the ethanol conversion process to demonstrate a new membrane reactor that can convert fermented ethanol directly to hydrogen. The integrated process we are aiming fo r is illustrated in figure 1 in the project description. The work will be carried out as collaboration between Professor Nakao?s group at the University of Tokyo, Japan, Professor Wang's group at the Tsinghua University, China and SINTEF. Major developmen ts in fundamental technology will be performed by collaboration between SINTEF and Professor Nakao?s group, while practical studies will be performed by Professor Wang's group in China. Exchange of students and young researchers will also take place. The initial funding applied for from the Norwegain Research Council is devided into two parts, project initiation (this application) and a pre-project (parallel application).