SEPURAN® Noble Membranes for efficient hydrogen recovery

In general, hydrogen separation and recovery from gas streams using membranes have been processing for nearly 50 years. Therefore, it’s a very mature technology. Evonik's SEPURAN® Noble membrane technology has been especially developed for hydrogen recovery and purification enabling highly pure hydrogen to be efficiently produced even when inlet concentrations of hydrogen are very low. The very selective SEPURAN® Noble membrane developed by Evonik enables high product gas purity, a high hydrogen yield as well as reduced energy consumption.

SEPURAN® Noble membranes can be used in the existing hydrogen markets like refineries, ammonia or methanol production as well as other chemical processes to efficiently recover unused hydrogen which can be recycled and re-used in a very efficient way. In addition, our technology offers a great tool for separation of hydrogen from natural gas when transported by natural gas grids.

Hydrogen is a very small and fast molecule, permeating very quickly through the wall of the membrane to the pressure-less side. Natural gas for example, on the other hand, is quite a big molecule so stays inside the membrane or inside the membrane fibre and thus retains on the high-pressure side. One key advantage of our membrane technology is its efficiency. The pressure inherent in the natural gas blend is sufficient to separate the hydrogen from the natural gas. No electricity or additional resources such as chemicals or water are required.

The possible concentration increase depends on the selectivity of the membrane material. The high-performance material our SEPURAN® Noble membranes are based on is tailored to offer one of the most selective membranes in the market being still very permeable. These well-balanced properties make it possible to achieve high concentrations with high recoveries simultaneously. The number of membrane cartridges depends on the flow which is treated. But you cannot increase the hydrogen purity by just using more membranes.
 

• High efficiency in purification through highly selective membranes
• Stable and long-lasting
• Space-saving and flexible

• Recovery of purge gas
• Ammonia production
• Methanol production
• Desulfurization
• Hydrocracking
• H₂-PSA
• H₂/CO ratio adjustment
• Debottlenecking PSA and cryogenic Systems
• Gas to liquid (GTL)
• Fischer-Tropsch synthesis

Evonik is a backward-integrated manufacturer of hollow-fibre gas separation membranes. Thanks to our comprehensive expertise in polymer chemistry, we are able to adjust the membrane properties already at the development stage of the base material—the high-performance polymer—to produce especially selective and robust membranes that can withstand extreme pressures and temperatures. For hydrogen separation applications, the hollow-fibres are coiled up in a cross-counter winding pattern, forming a structured packing for optimal flow distribution. This makes these modules more forgiving of pressure shocks and reversal of transmembrane pressure than conventional flat-sheet modules.