Abstract
Highly CO2 permeable membranes with good selectivity are ideal candidates for CO2 separation. Herein, we, for the first time, designed different polymeric membrane systems for CO2 removal from the air-fed anion-exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) by UniSim simulation under different operating conditions. The results indicate that the operations with higher feed pressure and permeate vacuum degree reduce the required membrane areas but increase the power demands. In addition, the single-stage facilitated transport membrane system (CO2 permeance of 3000 GPU) with an area of less than 10 m2 is feasible to reach a low CO2 content of <5 ppm for automotive AEMFCs with an air flow rate of 30 Nm3/h at 87 °C. It was also found that pursuing an extremely high CO2 removal ratio dramatically increases the required membrane area and the O2 loss, and sweep gas is more applicable for automotive vehicles. Nevertheless, highly permeable membranes should be further developed to enhance their competitiveness for CO2 removal from the air-fed AEMFCs.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Separation and Purification Technology |
DOIs | |
State | Accepted/In press - 22 Feb 2022 |
Keywords
- Membrane system
- CO2 removal
- air-fed fuel cells
- process simulation
- anion-exchange membranes