Integration of Gas Transport through a Composite Catalytic Inorganic Ceramic Membrane for Environmental Gas Separation Processes

This work presents the transport behaviour of carrier gases with inorganic ceramic membrane used for environmental gas separations at 289K and 0.01-1 bar. The gases tested include: Helium (He), Nitrogen (N2) Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Argon (Ar). The Knudsen ideal selectivity ratio of 0.95, 0.3 and 0.79 for Ar/CO2, He/CO2 and N2/CO2 gas respectively was slightly higher than the theoretical selectivity of the gases. The gas permeance was found to decrease with increase in gauge pressure indicating mass transfer limitations. However, at a relatively low pressure of 0.1 bar, Knudsen diffusion mechanism was dominant for He and N2 gases flow across the modified ceramic membrane in relation to the inverse proportionality of the square root of their molecular weights. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to determine the pore size distribution of the α-Al2O3 ceramic support.