(150e) Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8 Fe0.2Ox Mixed Conducting Ceramic Membranes for Syngas Production

There is an increasing interest in the development of a process for producing syngas (CO+H2) from methane using non-porous oxygen-conducting ceramic membranes as an alternative to the conventional expensive process based on air separation plant. In this work, the role of a Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8 Fe0.2Ox (BSCF) membrane material in the conversion of hydrocarbons has been studied. Reaction studies in the presence of Pt and Ni based catalysts demonstrated high hydrocarbon conversion in the presence of the BSCF membrane. The conversion and the H2:CO ratio was higher on the BSCF membrane than on lower flux membranes such as SrFeCo0.5Ox (SFC). Raman spectroscopy and temperature programmed desorption studies of CO and CO2 showed a higher CO and CO2 adsorption on BSCF compared to the SFC membrane. The onset temperature of oxygen release for BSCF was observed to be lower than that for SFC while the amount of oxygen release was significantly greater. These studies suggest that BSCF might be suitable for hydrocarbon conversion reactions at much lower temperatures than conventional dense ceramic membranes.