KU Develops High-Efficiency Membrane Reactor for Safer Hydrogen Energy Storage and Transport
KU (President Kim Dong-one) has developed a next-generation membrane reactor capable of efficiently storing and transporting hydrogen, a core energy source of the future.
Hydrogen is drawing much attention as an eco-friendly form of energy, but its properties make it difficult to store and transport safely. To solve this problem, various liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) are being studied, and methylcyclohexane (MCH) is typically used in this process. However, MCH must be subjected to high-temperature treatment in order to obtain a high conversion rate in the process of extracting hydrogen (dehydrogenation reaction), which may result in the deactivation of the catalysts and the generation of by-products.
Professor Choi Jung-kyu’s group in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at KU has developed a high-performance membrane reactor capable of simultaneously conducting dehydrogenation and hydrogen separation, and has achieved a high conversion rate at a temperature lower than that required by the conventional technology, thereby increasing the efficiency and safety of dehydrogenation.
The research group successfully developed a high-performance membrane reactor using a zeolite membrane with a high level of hydrogen selectivity, which is produced through the existing ‘hybrid zeolite membrane’ technology, and a platinum (Pt)-based catalyst used in the actual dehydrogenation processes. This reactor has achieved a level of performance that is sufficiently high for it to be used in actual industrial settings.
Professor Choi, the corresponding author of the article, said, “Our technology can be applied to various high-temperature reaction processes, in addition to MCH. The significance of our results is that the newly developed membrane reactor can be applied to actual high-temperature processes.”
The results of this study were published on June 13 (Thu) in Advanced Science (IF:15.1), a renowned international journal in the fields of nanoscience, chemistry, and material science. The study was supported by the Next-Generation Promising Seed Technology Commercialization Fast Track Program through the National Research Foundation.