SBIR Phase I: Amorphous High-Temperature Hydrogen Membranes

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将研究使用非晶合金作为氢渗透膜。人们对从重整烃燃料中分离氢产生了极大的兴趣。虽然氢选择性膜已用于这些领域，但由于成本限制和膜对破裂和中毒的敏感性，它们的使用通常受到限制。非晶态合金的机械性能和抗氢脆性有很大的提高。如果非晶合金能够被设计成具有氢渗透性，那么具有更长生命周期的膜反应器将是可行的。该提案将通过原子建模、分子动力学模拟和催化性能改性（通过近表面合金化）来研究有前途的非晶态合金组合物，以产生上级氢相关行为。拟议的项目将设计和制造无定形氢渗透膜，具有抗硫和其他中毒机制。有前途的非晶合金将被制成薄膜膜，并测试氢渗透性。一旦氢可渗透的合金组合物已经被鉴定，这些选择的组合物将被进一步测试用于从合成烃重整物中分离和纯化氢。膜工程和表征将在第一阶段完成，所选的膜系统将集成到该项目第二阶段的紧凑型微通道燃料重整器中。第一阶段和第二阶段的最终产品将是一个膜重整器，能够将市售的液态和气态烃类燃料重整为高纯度氢气，用于燃料电池。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate the use of amorphous alloys as hydrogen permeable membranes. There has been enormous interest in hydrogen separation from reformed hydrocarbon fuels. While hydrogen selective membranes have been used in these areas, their use has generally been limited because of cost constraints and membrane susceptibility to cracking and poisoning. Amorphous alloys have vastly improved mechanical properties and resistance to hydrogen embrittlement. If amorphous alloys can be engineered for hydrogen permeability, membrane reactors with longer life cycles would be feasible. This proposal will investigate promising amorphous alloy compositions through atomistic modeling, molecular dynamic simulation and catalytic property modification (by near-surface alloying), to yield superior hydrogen-related behavior. The proposed project will engineer and fabricate amorphous hydrogen permeable membranes with resistance to sulfur and other poisoning mechanisms. Promising amorphous alloys will be fabricated as thin-film membranes and tested for hydrogen permeability. Once hydrogen-permeable alloy compositions have been identified, these selected compositions will be further tested for hydrogen separation and purification from synthetic hydrocarbon reformate. Membrane engineering and characterization will be completed in Phase I, and the selected membrane system will be integrated into a compact mini-channel fuel reformer in Phase II of this project. The final product of Phase I and II will be a membrane reformer, capable of reforming commercially available, liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels to high-purity hydrogen, for use in fuel cells.