SBIR Phase I: Amorphous High-Temperature Hydrogen Membranes

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将研究非晶态合金作为氢渗透膜的使用。人们对从重整碳氢燃料中分离氢气产生了极大的兴趣。虽然氢选择膜已在这些领域中使用，但由于成本限制和膜容易破裂和中毒，它们的使用通常受到限制。非晶态合金极大地提高了机械性能和抗氢脆性能。如果非晶态合金可以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。这项提议将通过原子模拟、分子动力学模拟和催化性能改进(通过近表面合金化)来研究有前景的非晶态合金成分，以获得更好的氢相关行为。拟议中的项目将设计和制造具有抗硫和其他中毒机制的无定形透氢膜。有希望的非晶态合金将被制造成薄膜，并测试氢的透过性。一旦确定了氢渗透合金成分，这些选定的成分将被进一步测试，以从合成烃重整液中分离和提纯氢。膜工程和表征将在第一阶段完成，选定的膜系统将在本项目第二阶段集成到紧凑型微型通道燃料重整器中。第一阶段和第二阶段的最终产品将是一种膜重整器，能够将商业上可获得的液体和气态碳氢燃料转化为高纯度氢，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.